The World Turns Without You
by ensou
Summary: At the Valley of the End, a different set of events unfold. One change. One different movement, and the paths of the future are forever altered. A teacher realizes his failings. A teammate recognizes her flaws and shortcomings. And a girl becomes determined to change so she can forever support the one she loves. Sharingan!Naruto. Ensemble Cast.
1. Eyes

_My world remains the same, it keeps turning without you - Deadline_

* * *

 **Disclaimer:** Not mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**  
 **Eyes**

These eyes have never been the same since that day.

The day that I killed my brother.

* * *

 **Twenty Four hours ago**

A drizzle of wet drops landed on the leaves around them, the sky becoming grey and shadowy. Streams of light lanced through the blanketing cover, but slowly disappeared as the clouds shifted and hid all traces of the sun.

"Rain!" A silver-haired man turned to look at the dog that ran next to him. "Pakkun, have you lost their scent!?"

"It's okay. I've still got it… They're both here!" the ninken replied as they bounded forward, following the scent and trail that they had picked up. "They're both still he–" The dog/human duo burst through the foliage, jumping down Hashirama's large stone shoulder to land on the rocky shore of the River of the End. "Oh no…"

Two boys lay on the ground.

Both were still alive.

…But not for long.

"H-hey. Sensei." The boy smiled, grimacing in pain. "Looks like– *cough* *cough* Looks like this is the end, isn't it?"

"No. Nobody's dying here." Kakashi said, gritting his teeth. Not again. NO!

"Don't… lie to me." The boy tilted his head up, and looked at his lower half.

Twelve feet away.

The water falling around them increased, becoming sheets. Streams of blood mixed with water flowed away like little rivers, collecting in puddles of sanguine liquid, pools that reflected Kakashi's face tinted in red.

The boy let his neck relax. "He… he called me his brother. I told him–" He started hacking, blood spitting out of his mouth and dribbling down the side of his face. "I told him that when two truly skilled ninja's fists meet, they can understand each other." He took a wheezing breath, his lungs protesting, as if knowing they were at their end. "I understood. That last strike. I understood. I understood him." He coughed, but kept his eyes locked on Kakashi's face. "Why he's doing this."

The boy's breaths began to become shallow. "How much he… loves. everyone. …Loves me." He reached out a shaky hand and gripped Kakashi's pant-leg, dripping bloody water onto the fabric as the rain pelted everything around them. "Give them to him. So that he can protect th–" He coughed again, but it had become weak and pitiful. "the people he loves… Like I couldn't. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."

His eyes held only sincerity. Sincerity embedded in that blood-stained defeated face, resigned to the fact of his death at the hands of his best friend. There was no better death that he would have wanted.

Kakashi nodded. "I'll tell him."

The boy smiled. The first true smile he'd made in months.

"Good."

And with one last sigh,

Sasuke Uchiha died.

* * *

 **Fourteen hours later**

"Hah. Hah. Hah." A blonde boy shot up, taking gasping breaths, twisting his head around. "SASUKE!?"

"Whoa, whoa. Easy, Naruto." A hand landed his shoulder and pushed him back down, his head descending into the pillow behind him. "Take it easy."

Everything was black. Why was everything black? He'd been fighting Sasuke, and then… nothing. He had to be in the hospital; he could smell that sterile scent of formaldehyde and rubbing alcohol. And then it registered whose voice he'd heard.

"Kakashi-sensei?" The boy turned towards the sound of the voice. "…where are you? Why's everything dark?"

The boy lifted his hands up to his eyes, until they were stopped only inches away by rough fingers and glove-covered palms gripping his wrists.

"Don't. Don't touch." the jōnin ordered.

"Wh-what's going on? Where's Saskuke?" the boy asked shakily.

A loud sigh permeated the room, the sound echoing off of the walls.

"Naruto…" Ice spread throughout the boy's veins at the sound of his name spoken like that. It was the way the Third had said it whenever he'd had bad news that he didn't want to say. "Sasuke… Sasuke died from wounds incurred during his fight with you. He's dead."

The boy's thoughts ground to a halt, everything freezing up save for one remaining echo.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

The word reverberated around his skull. Bouncing through his mind ceaselessly.

 _It's your fault._ the darkness buried within him whispered. _Your fault._

"h-h-h-he's dead?" he stuttered out in shock. "No… no. no. no. no. NO! He can't, I-I didn't! No! NO!"

A heat in his head, in his eyes, started forming.

"It's not your fault, Naruto." _It is. It's all your fault._ "Nobody blames you." _They do. They all do._

The heat spread, growing hotter and hotter until it was almost burning.

"K-k-k-kakashi-sensei… why… why can't I see?" Naruto asked, a sinking cold feeling settling inside of him. "My eyes… they feel hot."

The man sighed again. "Sasuke… asked me to tell you something. He wanted me to say that he was sorry. That he understood you, in that last strike." He took a breath "That he knows how much you love everyone, that you love him. And because of that, he wanted you to have this, so that you could protect the people you love, like he couldn't." Kakashi told him. "He gave you his last gift. To the person he considered a brother."

 _No._

The fire in his eyes exploded, white-hot, and he reached up to tear at the gauze that covered them, to expose them. To give relief to the pain.

Kakashi's hands shot out and grabbed his wrists again. "Don't. I already said don't touch, Naruto."

The pain grew to be too much, too hot, and the boy known as Naruto passed out.

* * *

 **Four hours later**

Sakura Haruno entered room 324 quietly. But not quietly enough to avoid the notice of the silver-haired jōnin who sat in the corner, keeping an endless vigil over the blond boy on the bed in the center of the room

She halted, frozen by his glance, until she regained her wits and closed the door silently behind her, walking as softly as she could to the seat that was next to him.

Wet tracks of tears stained her face, and her throat was raw and sore from the sobbing.

But there were no more tears to give anymore. They had all run out.

She felt numb. Anesthetized. The technical term was 'shock'. It was something she had never felt before that time in Wave. And now, it was even worse.

Sakura sat down in the chair next to Kakashi, staring at the blonde boy on the bed.

This was all her fault. She knew she shouldn't have made Naruto make that promise.

She knew that it was manipulative and cruel to force that on him.

But she had done it anyways, because she had been too weak to stop the boy that she loved, and so she had turned to the only other person she knew who had a chance.

If she had only been stronger. Only been able to stop him. To make him stay. To give him a good enough reason, then none of this would have happened.

The boy she loved wouldn't be dead.

And the blonde idiot she considered one of her best friends wouldn't be here, in critical condition.

"He's going to be fine." The man at her side said, staring at the same place she was.

Sakura nodded silently in response, unable to even think of any way to respond right now.

"You know how I always say, 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower than trash?'" She nodded again. "Naruto tried his hardest to bring Sasuke back, despite the fact that he had broken that. He tried everything. It just, wasn't enough…" he trailed off.

Kakashi stared at the gauze covering Naruto's eyes. "I take full responsibility for this, as your jōnin sensei. Naruto shouldn't have been the one in that position. It should have been me. It's my responsibility to see to my team's safety. To make sure that nothing like this happens. And I've failed you." A tear crept down the man's cheek, soaking into his mask. "I've failed you all…"

They fell into silence, only the sound of the rhythmic rise and fall of the blonde boy's chest audible in the room.

"He's going to need you. He's going to need to know that you don't blame him. Because he'll feel like it's all his fault, when it isn't. I know it's going to be hard. But he's going to need his friends now more than ever. Especially you." the silver-haired man said. "Especially us."

"… I know." she whispered.

It wasn't Naruto's fault. As much as she wished she could say that it was, and hate him, and blame everything on him, she knew it wasn't.

It was hers.

* * *

 **One hour later**

Hinata Hyūga had run here as fast as she had been able to once she'd learned that Naruto-kun was in the hospital.

"A-a-ano. W-what room is N-naruto Uzumaki in? Please?" she asked the receptionist at the front desk.

"Hm? Oh! Hyūga-sama. Forgive me. He's in room 324." the lady answered. "Would you like me to get someone to show you the way?"

Hinata shook her head and slipped away as quickly as she could, rushing to the elevator and punching the 'up' button. She'd only heard a little of what happened from the doctor's passing by.

She'd been waiting to see if Neji-niisan would be alright, and it had only been an hour ago that the doctors had said he'd stabilized from his surgery. But then she'd found out that Naruto-kun was here too. And that Sasuke had died.

The elevator 'dinged', and she hurried inside it just as the doors opened, pushing the number '3' and standing still, waiting for the doors to close.

The doctors had said something about 'eyes' as they had walked passed. Had Naruto-kun gone blind?

Hinata felt like she might cry. He didn't deserve that. He'd gone through so many things. So many hardships He didn't need something like that too. His dreams would be crushed.

The elevator reached its level, and she stepped outside, looking both ways and then moving to the right, in the direction of the numbers lower than 50. Hinata halted at the end of the corner, turning left, and then immediately stopping again, reaching a trembling hand out to the doorknob and then stopping, retracting it.

Should she really be here? What was she going to say? What if Naruto-kun was awake? She didn't know if she could face–

The door opened, and a single eye peered out of the crack, accompanied by a mouth and nose covered by a black mask. "Hm? Hinata? Come in. Naruto's still asleep." Kakashi moved backwards, opening the door to let her in.

Hinata stepped inside, and then froze in shock.

The blonde boy lay in the center of a plain hospital bed, propped up on two pillows at his neck. Heavy curtains hung over the windows, preventing a great deal of light from entering the room, making everything dim and murky. But that wasn't why she had frozen.

Naruto's eyes were covered in gauze and padding. Dried blood tinged the edges, like he had been crying sanguine tears. It was like her fears were realized.

"H-h-h-he's b-blind?" Hinata asked frightfully. Tears started to well up in her eyes at the injustice of it. How this boy who she admired so much now had to endure even worse trials.

"No." the jōnin at her side said softly. "He's not blind. His eyes are fine."

A wave of relief swept over her.

Hinata slowly walked over to the chairs on the other side of the room, joining the girl she hadn't even noticed when she first entered. Naruto's other teammate. Sakura.

The Hyūga girl crushed the small amount of jealously that revealed itself at seeing the pink-haired girl. Now was not the time.

Sakura just stared at her hands, her head hung down, and Hinata could sense the sadness and self-loathing the girl held for herself, practically a cloud of depression hanging over her.

 _Oh, Naruto-kun._ Hinata watched the boy's sleeping face. _I wish you knew how much people care about you._

Kakashi, sensing that it would be best to leave the two girls alone, stepped outside to report to the Godaime on Naruto's condition the next time she was free.

"Was– was I a bad teammate?" Sakura asked hoarsely. "Why… why did all of this happen?"

Hinata had no response. What _could_ she say? Those were questions that nobody, least of all herself, could answer, except Sakura herself.

"We were getting so much better! Everyone was happy, and then… the Chūnin exams happened. And it all just started to fall apart…" she said bitterly.

Hinata tapped her fingers together nervously. She couldn't understand why the pinkette was talking to her like this. They'd never even had a proper conversation before now.

"Oh, Hinata!" Sakura dove at the blue-haired girl's shoulder and started sobbing, causing Hinata to 'eep' in response at the sudden close contact and lock up.

After a few minutes passed, filled with unintelligible sounds and Sakura's tears soaking into her beige jacket, the female member of Team 7 drew away from the Hyūga, rubbing at her cheeks. "S-sorry."

"I-it's o-okay." Hinata replied.

"I think… I think I need to go sleep." Sakura stood up. "… take care of Naruto, alright? He… he needs you."

Hinata nodded. She got the sense that Sakura wasn't just talking about for today.

And in a voice she would years later swear was the beginning of her new self, she said, unfaltering:

"I will."

* * *

The Godaime Hokage Tsunade Senjū sat behind her large wooden desk, light streaming in from the windows at her back, falling across her desk and the floor, illuminating the piles of paperwork on both sides of her.

But she paid them no heed.

Instead, her eyes were fixed on the two files in front of her.

On the left, Sasuke Uchiha.

Uchiha heir.

Son of Fugaku and Mikoto.

Younger brother of Itachi.

Top marks in the Academy.

Bright. Smart. Loved by his peers.

But anti-social, withdrawn, unwilling to accept friendship.

Deceased. Declared DOA at the Konoha Shinobi Hospital.

On the right, Naruto Uzumaki-[REDACTED]

Son of [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]

Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yōko

Lowest scores of his class in the academy.

Considered dumb, stupid, annoying, and a public nuisance at best.

But also tenacious, driven, outgoing, and willing to trust and make friends with anyone who proved themselves worthy.

Such as Sasuke Uchiha.

Tsunade picked up the glass tumbler on her right and sipped at the amber liquid inside, ice clinking and settling when she set it down onto the solid oak desk made by her grandfather.

A knock sounded on the office door.

"Yes? Who is it?" The large wooden door opened, a swath of silver hair poking inside, followed by a half-lidded right eye. "Kakashi. How's Naruto?"

The man slipped in and closed the door behind him, walking towards the Hokage's desk and sitting down in one of the chairs off to the side.

"He's… alright. He woke up once, about five and a half hours ago. Highly lucid. Much more than I expected. He immediately asked about Sasuke, and I…" The man winced at the memory of his bluntness. He could have broken the news better than he had. "I told him the basics of what happened. I tried to reinforce that it wasn't his fault, and that Sasuke didn't blame him either but…" Tsunade nodded in understanding. "He passed out, likely due to a combination of blood pressure, fatigue, and… adjustment to the transplant."

The Senjū steepled her hands.

"Good. Do you think he needs any sedatives? Did he appear to be in any pain?"

"He complained about his eyes feeling hot… but I don't think it's a rejection, just a reaction. My own Sharingan felt similarly immediately after transplant, although I didn't pay much attention to it." Tsunade accepted that. "I left him with Hinata Hyūga and Sakura watching him. He should be safe from anybody with them there."

She 'hm'-ed in agreement, closing the files on her desk and pushing them to the side.

"There will be no charges pressed. At the time of death, Sasuke Uchiha was a missing-ninja of Konohagakure no Sato, a willing deserter. That should keep the civilians off his back. And if they really start pushing, I'll remind them that this is village is a military autocracy. Kami knows they don't need any more reason to discriminate against him. His eyes are just going to make things worse."

Kakashi nodded. "I'll be keeping a close watch over him from now on."

"Jiraiya will be taking over the majority of his training, as the Akatsuki are beginning to show disturbing motions towards him. Originally, the plan was for them to leave the village…"

"I think he's going to need his friends. Isolating himself from the people he's close to may be the worst thing for him right now, as extroverted as he is." The silver jōnin commented.

"I agree. Completely. Therefore, his training will be taking place in the village for at least the next six months. We will re-evaluate the situation at that time. Jiraiya will be available in two-month blocks, as he still needs to keep up-to-date with his spy network. During that time, would you be able to take over?" she asked.

"Yes."

Tsunade eyed him. "None of that half-training, late-to-meetings bullshit I hear you pulling. You need to get your head out of your ass, Kakashi. Obito and Rin are in the past. And it may be harsh, but you need to leave them there and move on. It's been fifteen years. You need to focus on the team you have. Not the team you _had_. Naruto needs you."

"I understand." he said, fully serious.

"Good. I'll keep up-to-date on Naruto's condition, but let me know if anything major changes."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Dismissed."

The man nodded, stood up, and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Tsunade leaned back in her leather chair and sighed.

Things were getting complicated.

* * *

Kurama growled in his cell.

He had been so close. The closest he had gotten yet.

His human container had been drawing on his chakra, the acidic quality from containing his anger and bitterness at humanity eating away at the channels of the seal that held him.

If the boy had only used more, he might have been able to make him lose himself and escape.

He was fully aware of the effects that would have on his container.

Why should he care?

But instead, the Uchiha boy had a change of heart at the last minute, and now his Kami-damned container had those same cursed eyes as _him_. And even more frustrating was the fact that the boy's natural faculties of Yang chakra combined with his gigantic reserves and absurdly strong life-force ensured that those eyes wouldn't even be a hindrance.

He roared in anger and annoyance

This was not looking good.

* * *

 **Five hours later**

Hinata had only gone home once in the past five hours: to prepare a lunch box for herself (and Naruto-kun if he woke up).

It was simple. Just rice and some vegetable soup. But she knew he wouldn't be up for eating much of anything with the amount of injury it looked like he had. So soup was the best thing for him.

She had eaten her food quietly, and then passed the time watching over him and thinking.

Hinata knew she wasn't confident. She knew she had problems facing authority, especially her father. But she also knew, that if Naruto-kun had been in her place, he would have sucked it up and dealt with it. He wouldn't have taken anything lying down. He would have stood up for himself and the things and people he believed in.

In the chūnin exams, it had been him that had given her strength. Strength to face Neji-niisan. To stand up for herself.

And now, Naruto-kun needed her. Sakura herself had said it.

Now it wasn't just about standing up for herself. It was standing up for _him_ , too. Supporting him because he needed it. Supporting him, because he couldn't do it for himself right now.

She wouldn't be able to do that the way she was now.

Hinata avoided conflict because of her lack of confidence in her abilities. But now? If she was to stand up for him, to protect him when he couldn't do it for himself, like now, conflict became unavoidable. Confidence became a requirement. If she was to support Naruto-kun, to help him, to take care of him like she had been told to, she _needed_ to be stronger. She would do anything to be able to help him the same way he had helped her.

Even change who she was.

No more stuttering.

No more staring at the ground, unable to meet people's eyes.

No more accepting her 'role' as the _former_ heiress of the Hyūga.

No more eternal passivity.

She would become a different girl.

It would be hard. Very hard. But she was willing to do it. To try. To give it her full effort.

For Naruto-kun.

A shadow appeared from the window, and she turned to it anxiously, only to see a large man wearing _geta_ squatting on the windowsill. Jiraiya-sama.

"How's the gaki doing?" he asked, keeping his voice down.

"Um, he's… better." she answered, softly.

Hinata had been able to watch as the chakra of the Kyūbi had repaired his muscles and organs, knitting tears back together and mending bone. And it had even gone to his eyes, working on them as well. She couldn't understand why his eyes would be damaged, but the orbital muscles had been swollen, and his nerves had looked almost …frayed.

"I heard what happened, and came as soon as I could." the Sannin said. "It's good that he's doing okay."

Hinata nodded.

The door of the room opened, and Kakashi stepped inside. When he saw the sage, he walked towards him, standing next to the man who had finally extricated himself from the window and was now standing in the room proper.

"Did you get a chance to speak to Hokage-sama?"

"Yeah. Hime told me what's up. I agree with her. He needs to stay here for now." Jiraiya said, nodding.

Stay here? What were they talking about?

"Urghhh." A sound from the bed halted them, and they all turned as one to look at the boy on the bed who was stirring.

Wooden geta clacked over the hard floor as Jiraiya walked towards the boy.

"Hey, gaki. How're you feeling?" he asked quietly.

"E-ero-sennin? What're you doing here?" the boy asked quietly. "What's going on? Why can't I–" He froze. "What happened to Sasuke? That was a dream, r-right? Where is the teme? I'll beat him up for trying leave like that!"

Jiraiya and Kakashi looked at each other, before the sage turned back to the blonde. "Naruto… Sasuke's…" He sighed. "Sasuke's no longer with us."

The boy was silent, the absence of sound permeating the room as badly as white noise.

And then his shoulders started shaking.

"I did it, didn't I?" he sobbed. "It was me."

Hinata got up from her seat and went over to him. Neither the sage nor the jōnin made any move to stop her as she stood next to his bed and reached out hesitantly… _No. You made a vow._ intentionally to grab his hand and hold it.

"H-hello, Naruto-kun." she whispered.

"H-h-hinata-chan?"

She nodded in response, and then realizing he couldn't see her motion, spoke up. "I'm here."

He smiled, even in his constant sobbing.

"And I'll b…" Deep breath. "I'll be here as long as you want me to be."

He quickly reached out to grab her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders from his high position on the bed.

She was unable to suppress the 'eep' that jumped out of her mouth, or the blush that she could feel warming her face.

But just because she reacted like that, didn't mean she needed to retract.

So instead, she wrapped her arms around the boy she had fallen in love with, and comforted him until he could cry no more.

* * *

Naruto looked into the hand-mirror that Hinata held up for him.

Looking at the eyes that stared back at him.

No longer his own eyes, but _his_ eyes.

Permanently red. A strange six-petal design in each of them.

Sasuke's Sharingan.

Slowing down the flow of chakra that was pulled towards them, they shifted to a solid crimson, with three tomoe circling endlessly around a coal-black iris.

Kakashi-sensei had said that Sasuke had asked for this. Had asked for Naruto to have his eyes. So that unlike him, he would be able to protect the people he loved.

But what did it matter, if he had been unable to protect the one he considered his closest friend, his brother?

Naruto nodded at Hinata, and she took the mirror and set it back down on the side table as he lowered himself down into the pillow at his back, staring at the ceiling, watching the motes of dust jump around in perfect clarity.

 _I promise you. I swear on everything. On my nindō. On these eyes that you gave me. On my_ _ **life**_ _. That I will do what you asked. I will protect the ones I love. No matter the cost._

And with that final thought, Naruto Uzumaki closed his eyes, and allowed himself to fall backwards into the dark weariness that saturated him completely.

* * *

 **A/N:**

The divergence point for this story is that when Naruto and Sasuke clash for the final time at the Valley of the End, instead of Naruto's hand going above Sasuke's, the Rasengan glancing off of Sasuke's forehead protector, it dives down, into Sasuke's midsection. And tears his stomach to shreds.

Naruto is still pierced by the Chidori, but it is healed almost immediately, as in canon.

So Sasuke dies. And everything changes… but at the same time, it doesn't.

The world keeps turning.

You like this? Yes? No? Maybe? Want me to continue?

Please, leave me a review! Tell me what you think! Love, hate, gripes, annoyances, questions, comments: I relish them all!


	2. Ripples

**Disclaimer:** Still not mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 2:**  
 **Ripples**

There would be no funeral or memorial service.

Keeping up the pretense (or really, truth) of Sasuke being a missing-nin when he died required that he not have one, nor would his name be added to the Memorial Stone. Naruto had strongly protested (yelled) when Tsunade had visited the first time and told him, until the Sannin had put her foot down. Literally. There was now a rather large indentation in the floor of room 324.

The Hokage had simply told him it was this, or he would be charged for murder of a fellow ninja, resulting in him being sent to prison or even executed. There was no in-between, as the civilian population of Konoha would be more than glad to pounce on any little weakness or loophole they could find. And so, there could be none.

That didn't mean Naruto didn't hate it though.

Instead, Sasuke had been cremated and his ashes were placed with his clan-members in their ancestral mausoleum before Naruto had even woken up.

The only thing still intact was his eyes.

The Sharingan eyes that now sat, ever whirling, within Naruto's skull.

* * *

"Good morning, Naruto-kun." Hinata said, stepping through the door to the boy's hospital room.

He turned towards her at the sound of her voice, red orbs watching her face. "Hey, Hinata-chan."

"I, um, I brought you something to eat…" she said. In her hands was a large paper bag with two plastic bowls inside of it. She'd barely managed to sneak it past the nurse that was patrolling the hallway, but she also knew that it was worth it. He needed anything and everything that could make him feel better right now.

And nothing made Naruto feel better than ramen.

Naruto perked up, smelling the scent of warm broth that leaked into the air. Hinata walked over to his bed, sitting down in the chair that she had moved to be next to it yesterday, putting the bag down on the floor and reaching in to pull the top bowl out, placing it and a pair of chopsticks on the small overhanging tabletop-like object that sat over Naruto's lap.

"I-is this Ichiraku-jii's miso ramen?" he asked slowly, as if disbelieving.

Hinata nodded in response. "I know you like it… and I thought it would be alright, even if you're still supposed to be in bed…" She got her own bowl out of the bag and placed it on the side-table on her right.

"Thanks Hinata-chan!" he said, grabbing the chopsticks in front of him, cracking them apart and pulling the lid off of the large bowl of soup. Hinata flushed slightly and smiled at his enthusiasm, glad that she had managed to pierce some of the dour moroseness that he had been displaying until she'd left last night.

Naruto began eagerly sucking at the noodles, chewing and then swallowing with a contented sigh. "Ichiraku's really is the best…"

Hinata broke her own chopsticks and began eating, if a bit slower than Naruto (which wasn't very hard to accomplish). She savored the flavor of the broth while she ate, allowing it to warm her from the inside out.

Last night she had had a few missteps in her resolution to be stronger and more confident, all of which had involved her father, but in the end she had been able to live up to them for the most part. She knew this would not be an instantaneous thing. Years of habits could not be broken overnight. But there were things she could do. Stopping and breathing before talking when she felt like she would stutter. Forcing her eyes to stay on someone instead of allowing them to slip and wander down to the ground. Halting her nervous tic of tapping her fingers whenever she noticed it.

All of this would contribute to deconstructing the meek image and air that had built up around her. And if she gave off the sense of being more confident, even if she wasn't quite yet, she knew that her own confidence would slowly rise on its own. Positive self-reinforcement.

The branch member on guard duty had said that Kurenai-sensei had visited the Hyūga compound this morning, to tell Hinata that team meetings were temporarily postponed until Shino returned and both Kiba and Akamaru were fully recovered. Hinata had gone to Kiba's hospital room first this morning, but he'd been asleep, so she had left soon after, going to Ichiraku's after having the idea to get Naruto-kun lunch, and then coming back to see him.

It had obviously been the right decision.

Naruto slurped up the last of his golden broth, placing the bowl down and leaning back with a sigh, looking at the ceiling.

"… thanks, Hinata-chan. I, um… I really appreciate you visiting me." Hinata nodded in acknowledgment. "Now… now I kinda wish I had visited you more when you were here after that fight with Neji. 'Cause now I know how _boring_ this is."

She giggled, and he turned to look at her. "Seriously! All you can do is just look at the walls or sleep. It's _terrible_."

Hinata knew he was trying to make light of it, but she understood what he meant. He was glad she was there, because it kept him from thinking about everything that had happened, kept him from falling into a depressive spiral of guilt.

But that was why she was there in the first place.

To support him now when he needed it the most.

* * *

Shikamaru Nara was not calm.

If anything he was the _opposite_ of calm, his emotions so turbulent that he'd be lucky to last even five minutes against his old man in a game of shōgi right now.

Both his best friend and two of his fellow teammates had been in critical condition, barely hanging onto life because of his decisions. All had survived their immediate treatment, and were now recovering on their own.

But just as bad was that he'd been the one that'd had to tell Ino the news. Suffice to say, she hadn't taken _any_ of it well; 'troublesome' wouldn't even begin to describe it. She'd already been in tears on hearing that Sasuke had abandoned Konoha, but then on hearing about his death…

Well, Shikamaru had learned to leave the Yamanaka to do what they did best when it came to matters of the mind.

Crying girls were definitely _not_ his field of experience.

He sighed, staring at the fluffy clouds floating in the blue expanse above him. Even his usual past-time wasn't doing anything for his state of mind. Closing his eyes, he tried to push some of the overwhelming feelings aside, just calming down.

 _Technically_ Hokage-sama had declared this mission a success. They had brought Sasuke back home within the parameters: alive or dead.

So why did it feel so much like a failure?

…

Because he hadn't done his best? Hadn't gotten the best result?

Because until he had fought that red-haired flute girl, all he'd been doing was sitting back, relying on the actions of the others?

Because it had all ended in the death of a person that he had known for years?

"Are you just going to lay here all day or what?" a feminine voice above his head said.

Opening his eyes, he looked up at the girl who was towering over him, leaning so that she was blocking the sun's rays from reaching his face.

… _troublesome._

"This isn't the guy I went up against in the finals. What the hell happened to him?"

Shikamaru sighed, closing his eyes again.

"Uh-uh!" The end of a large black battle-fan whacked him lightly in the side of the head. "I asked you something!"

 _Ow._

"…" He stared up into her eyes and she stared back, as if just daring him to dismiss her again.

 _Hahhh. Troublesome woman._

"We succeeded… so why does it feel like we failed?" he asked rhetorically.

She moved next to him and sat down on the grass to the right, her fan between her knees.

"Damn, you leaf-nins are soft." she responded. "Then again, bringing home someone you knew from your own village in a body bag… and I hear the kid who did it was on the same team too…"

"Naruto." Shikamaru supplied flatly.

Temari turned to look back at him and nodded. "Yeah, Naruto. The loud one who got my brother back. I could understand _him_ being really messed up over this…"

Naruto. Shikamaru had avoided his room so far. Unable to go and face him. Unable to go and see the expression he would make.

 _Coward._

His father's words repeated in his ears. _That's what it means to be a real companion. You coward!_

Was he? Was he really just a coward?

"Your father was wrong." Temari said, as if reading his mind. "A coward wouldn't have been able to beat me like that. Or lead a team of genin against those four and get as far as you did. Missions go bad. It happens. The thing that tells you if you're really cut out or not for this is whether you can come out of it stronger than you were before, you know?"

Shikamaru's mouth quirked into a ghost of a smile at her attempt to cheer him up. "Yeah."

"In Suna, we have a saying: 'You can't control the sand while it blows, only while it's still.' It means you can't affect the things that aren't your actions, but that you can still decide how you react to those events." she looked back at him. "A good leader isn't someone who knows the right decision to make all the time. They're someone who can adapt to the things that are out of their control."

He blinked. That was almost scarily insightful coming from her.

"C'mon. Now I want to go see how that kid's doing, and you're going to be my excuse." she said, standing up and turning around to face him.

"…" He felt a drop of sweat form on his brow.

 _Women are so pushy…_

* * *

Naruto stared at his bandaged hands, watching the yellow energy that flowed around his body like water.

His chakra.

It was strange seeing things like this. Seeing things with these eyes. He only had to think about remembering something, and he could. He knew where people would move to before they did. He could see the nurses walk around outside of his room just from the chakra signatures.

It was really cool.

…except for why he was able to do it. How it had happened.

Sasuke had died. Was dead because of him.

Even though there was a sense of closure because of their final fight, there also wasn't.

Sasuke had been trying to kill him with that last attack. And Naruto had retaliated with one equally powerful to counter it.

But while Sasuke's Chidori hadn't even left a scar on him, Naruto's Rasengan had done its job perfectly, grinding through the flesh and bone of the other boy, tearing his insides to shreds.

After seeing the beginning of his attack land, the ball of swirling amber colliding with Sasuke's midsection, Naruto couldn't remember anything. He'd blacked out.

If it had been _Naruto_ who died, he knew that dying like that, at the hands of his best friend, going out fighting to the bitter end, was a death that he would have accepted and even been alright with.

Is that why Sasuke had changed in those last minutes like Kakashi had said? Because his death by then had been inevitable, so there was nothing but to accept it and the feelings that Sasuke had understood from Naruto's strike?

Is that why he had died with a smile? Because he had died at the hands of the only person he could accept death from?

It was so complex, and left Naruto in a state of turmoil that he just didn't know what to do with.

Hinata had held him as he had (embarrassingly) cried for almost an entire hour yesterday, something that he didn't think he would have ever been able to do in front of anybody else but her. Naruto put up a strong front around Sakura, trying to prove himself to her, and Kakashi-sensei wouldn't have had any idea what to do.

But Hinata-chan…

He'd used to think she was weird. Always red. Like she had a fever or something. And stuttering.

But at the Chūnin exams, she'd proven herself to him. And now he saw her as something more than that. As a person who was strong, and yet still kind and caring because she didn't _want_ to hurt her own family.

Naruto admired that.

It was two now, and she'd gone to visit Neji and then Kiba, so he had been passing the time so far by looking at the ceiling, just waiting for her to return like she had promised before slipping out.

He'd gotten bored of the ceiling quickly.

So instead, he was staring at his hands and thinking, watching the chakra flow that was now visible all the time.

A knock on the door drew his attention away, towards the now-opening entrance to his room.

"Yo, Naru–" Shikamaru halted, his eyes widening at the sight in front of him.

Naruto sighed inwardly. The only people who hadn't shown any surprise at his new eyes and appearance were Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-baachan. Even Hinata had been shocked when she'd seen the bandages come off of his face, but she had quickly recovered in seconds and acted like nothing was unusual, not making a single comment.

He'd truly appreciated it.

The first time Sakura-chan had seen him, she had quickly closed the door instead of entering like she had intended. But because of his new vision, he had been able to record in pristine clarity the tears that had been falling from her face as she backed out of the room.

That had cut deeper than any words would have been able to.

She'd later come and apologized, but there was nothing to forgive, because he understood exactly how she felt. It was how he had felt the first time he had seen them too, after all. His eyes would be an ever-permanent reminder of the missing fourth member of Team Seven.

Naruto turned his gaze away from Shikamaru back to the yellow haze around his hands.

"Hey, Shikamaru." he said softly.

The chūnin recovered gracefully, and finished stepping into the room, another pair of footsteps following afterwards that Naruto didn't look up to see who they belonged to.

"Haaahh. Jeez. That's unexpected." he said, walking towards the bed and sitting down on the side. "Sasuke's?"

"… Kakashi-sensei said he asked for it." Naruto responded quietly.

"Asked for what?" a female voice from the corner asked, causing Naruto to look at the speaker. Temari. "…Oh." she said dumbly at the sight of the spinning red irises.

Naruto turned back to his hands in his lap.

"Well… everyone else is going to be fine now…" Shikamaru told him, unsure what to do about the awkward silence that covered them like a blanket.

The blonde nodded minutely. "Hinata-chan told me. She's visiting Kiba and Neji right now."

"It's not your faul–"

"Stop saying that! Everybody keeps saying that!" the blonde yelled, startling both Shikamaru and Temari "Everyone says that it's not my fault! But it is! It _is_! So why won't anyone just say it?" Tears started trailing down his face. "It'd be easier if people just said it…"

"…you're wrong." The three of them turned towards the source of the new voice. Hinata stood in the doorway, and walked over to Naruto's bed, sitting down in the chair she had been in this morning. "I-It's not your fault… It's not your fault that Sasuke-kun decided to run away, or to fight you, or any of this."

Naruto sniffled, disbelieving. He was so used to having people blame everything on him. It was all he knew. But now, with the biggest mistake he'd ever made, people were unwilling to place it on him.

He didn't know how to react. What to do.

Shikamaru looked thoughtfully at Hinata, and then turned his head further to the left so he could see the blonde. "She's right, Naruto. It's like in shōgi, when one of your pieces is captured by your opponent and used against you, it's not your piece anymore… Sasuke was like that. You can't be held accountable for his actions."

The boy nodded silently, staring at hands. "It's just…" He trailed off, unable to think of anything.

The Nara turned forward and sighed. "Yeah. I know. You feel lost."

They all sat there for a few minutes in silence, until Shikamaru glanced up at the Suna girl over on the side. "I gotta go visit Chōji and then get back home or my mother's going to give me an earful. I'll come back later if you want, okay?"

Naruto nodded.

"Great." He slid off of the bed, and walked towards the door, Temari trailing after him. "Oh, and Naruto?" The jinchūriki looked up at him. "They look good."

He smiled and nodded.

* * *

Temari punched him in the arm as soon as they were out of the room. "Look good? _Look good?_ "

"H-hey, it was the best thing I could think of, okay? And it got him to smile!" he defended.

She huffed, seeming to accept the excuse as they walked towards the elevator that would take them to Chōji's room. "That blue-haired one seemed different than I remember…"

"Hinata? Yeah. She's normally bright red around him. And all shy and stuttering. I wonder what changed…"

"I think I like this better."

… _of course you would._

* * *

Sakura Haruno stared at her ceiling. Like she had been for the past five hours.

She was wallowing.

And she knew it.

But it was just… so _sudden_. All of it. Sasuke leaving. And then… his death.

She still felt slightly numb. But there was also a feeling of emptiness in her chest.

Both Sasuke's defection and then death had brought a lot of her emotions into question.

She'd told him she loved him, that night.

But was that a desperate cry in the dark, to get him to stay? Or was it really true?

She rolled over onto her side, staring at the wall on her left.

Sakura had realized in the past few days that Naruto had become like a brother to her, despite all of his attempts to go out on 'dates'.

But Sasuke…

Sasuke had been the subject of her admiration? Infatuation? Crush? Love?

And if it was love, was it romantic or platonic?

He was amazingly attractive, even Naruto would admit that. But that wasn't exactly a stable base for a relationship. Neither was one-sided admiration. He'd never seen her or even _acknowledged_ her as worth his time romantically.

Then there was the fact that before the chūnin exams, they had all been friends.

And… she had actually been satisfied with that.

Which hinted at the possibility that she _hadn't_ actually been in love with _him_ , only the _idea_ of being in love with him. And that all she had wanted in the first place was to be his friend, someone who he could rely on, like Naruto had come to be for both of them.

Naruto… Seeing his eyes had shaken her.

She'd known that it had happened. Kakashi had told her that Sasuke had asked for his Sharingan to be given to Naruto. To protect the people he cared about. To make him stronger so he could do that.

But it had still shocked her, and she hadn't been able to stop the tears that had come out, closing the door and leaving to go to the roof of the hospital to cry.

Even worse, she had seen the look of hurt and pain on Naruto's face as she had done that.

Kakashi had asked her to be there for him. And she had failed that in less than twenty-four hours.

What kind of friend did that make her?

He'd said he'd understood, once her tears had dried up and she'd gone back down into his room like she had planned originally, but she could still see his sullen mood, and the remnants of the pain that she had caused.

It only made her chest hurt worse.

She still blamed herself for this situation. Where Naruto had had to fight Sasuke, who he cared so much about, and would go so far for. For this ending, where Sasuke had become so obsessed with power that he had tried to kill Naruto to get it, and the blonde had had no choice but to defend himself against Sasuke's attacks. And they had eventually gotten so bad that it was just like that day on the roof with the water towers.

Except this time, she hadn't been there. There had been no Kakashi to stop their blows from connecting.

It was her fault.

If she had been able to stop him from leaving. If she had been stronger, maybe even stopping him by force, this wouldn't have happened.

Instead, she had been sucker punched with a single pressure point to the neck.

Taken out in a way that was _pathetic_ for a ninja. That was how ninja took down _civilians_.

Sasuke had been saying that she was no better than one by doing that.

Honestly? She had to agree with him.

She had been dead weight on the team. She had only ever begun to actually fight and win in the Forest of Death. And that had been for less than ten minutes, not even involving her taking down her opponent.

She was weak.

And because she was weak, this was the result.

If she had been stronger, they might have been a tighter team, closer with one another. If she had been stronger, she and Naruto might have been able to sway him from his path to try and cut his ties with everyone. If she had been stronger, he might not have died.

But she wasn't.

So what was she going to do now?

Did she still want to be a ninja?

She knew the answer to that question immediately. Yes, she did.

If she continued being a ninja, how would she prevent this from happening again? How would she stop the people she cared about from getting hurt?

She had to get stronger.

But Sakura wasn't a ninjutsu or taijutsu type. She was mediocre at best with weapons and aim.

However, she had control over her chakra that even Kakashi had praised her for.

She was a genjutsu and medic type. But they weren't strong. They had to rely on others to protect them. They had to stay back from the fight.

She just couldn't let that happen. _Wouldn't_ let that happen.

But there was _one_ medic who had managed to defy that.

One person who had turned her weakness into her strongest ability and strength.

One woman, who had defied all odds.

If Sakura was going to become someone that was strong enough to fight side-by-side with her teammates and comrades, the only way to do that was to study under the strongest medic that had ever existed.

Hokage-sama herself.

* * *

Hinata was on a mission.

Not a shinobi mission, mind you. Just a mission. A personal mission.

She was trying to find Kurenai-sensei.

She'd decided if she was really going to do this whole 'more confidence' thing, her sensei would be the best person to help her out and reinforce better habits.

Her father was not even a consideration.

So she was walking down the road the Kurenai usually frequented around this time of afternoon, trying to find the genjutsu mistress.

… until she walked right into someone.

"Hey, Kurenai-chan, isn't this one of your kiddies?" The woman she had walked into slung an arm around Hinata's shoulder and dragged her over to a dango stand on the side of the road without giving the Hyūga a chance to react. "She didn't even see me just standing there waiting for her. You've gotta teach 'em to be more observant than that."

Kurenai turned towards the pair and and sighed. "Anko, please let Hinata go." The woman complied, releasing her head-lock on the girl and walking over to a chair next to Kurenai, pulling it out and sitting down, leaning back in it. She motioned at Hinata to take the third chair, and the blue haired girl did.

"Hey. One order for me, yeah?" she said to one of the people running around.

Hinata regained her wits and remembered why she was here. "Um. Good afternoon, Kurenai-sensei. I was–" Breathe. "I was wondering if you could help me get better with my self-confidence… overall. And to help me get stronger." Hinata asked calmly. The genjutsu mistress blinked owlishly. "Because both Shino-kun and Kiba can't train, I thought it would be better if we used the time we had…"

Kurenai looked shocked. "Hinata, what made you…?"

"Naruto-kun needs me." she answered firmly, allowing no room for discussion. "And I need to be stronger to support him."

Anko whistled and nudged Kurenai with her elbow. "That's some dedication, huh?" A plate of dango was set in front of her, and she began eating the sweets eagerly.

Hinata blushed and fought the desire to shrink and tap her fingers.

Kurenai began smiling. "I'd love to help, Hinata. What do you want to work on?"

"…my voice. And standing up for myself." _And others_ "And being able to say what I want."

Anko finished off her first stick of the confectionery and smirked. "Heh. I like this one, Kurenai-chan. She's got guts." The purple-haired woman closed her eyes, thinking. "Hm… What would you think if I–"

Kurenai turned her head to look at her and cut her off. "No. You're not honestly considering taking someone pure like _her_ –"

"You know, I think I am." Anko stuck out her tongue at the genjutsu mistress and then looked back at Hinata. "Hey girl. How'd you like to work with Konoha's one and only snake mistress herself? I guarantee we'd get those little problems worked out _real_ fast."

Kurenai sighed, resting her head on her palm. "You're just _trying_ to corrupt my genin, aren't you?"

Anko picked at her teeth with the end of her skewer. "Mayyyyybeeee." she responded with a wide grin. "But I don't like to think of it as 'corrupting' so much as 'molding and improving the future generation'."

"With you, it's corrupting." Kurenai replied, deadpan.

"So how about it, girl? I've still got missions and T&I shit, but I'd like to think I could take on a cute little genin like you in my spare time. And you'll be doing stuff with Nai-chan anyways, so it's not like you two can't work together then. How about it?" the woman asked.

Kurenai shook her head, prompting Hinata to say no.

But Hinata had already decided her fate. Now it just needed to be sealed.

"Yes."

* * *

Kakashi Hatake stood looking at the Memorial Stone, just as he usually did most of the time when he wasn't off doing anything else.

But this was different.

 _Obito. Rin. Sensei. Things have changed now._

 _I… I think the Hokage's right. I'm stuck in the past. Remembering the times we had together instead of focusing on the present. If I hadn't been like this, maybe…_

 _Maybe I would have paid more attention. Seen it coming. Prevented it. Stopped it. But now another one of my teammates is dead, and the only person I have to blame is myself._

 _He can't even have his name put on here, because of the way he left before he died. Deserting._

The jōnin sighed. _What would you do?_

 _Probably beat some sense into me, huh?_

 _Yeah. That's exactly what you would have done._

 _Now… I think I need to stop. It's been fifteen years. I need to stop coming here. To move forward. I need to look after the two teammates I have left. Who I need to protect and take care of._

 _You'd have liked Naruto, Obito. And now he's more like you than ever. Two Sharingan eyes. Given to him with the same purpose and intent you gave me yours. And I was the one who transferred them._

 _They need me. Sakura and Naruto. And I was too much of a fool to see just how much before. But now… now I know what I need to do._

 _So I think this is goodbye for now. It's time to look to the future, and take responsibility for my actions. To train your son, Minato-sensei. To teach him the things that you would have if you had been here. To be a sensei you would have been proud of._

 _Goodbye._

And with one final hand placed lovingly on the stone, Kakashi jumped away towards the village, the light of the sunset behind him.

* * *

"AAAAAAAGHHHHHH" A series of crashes and the tinkling of broken glass echoed through the room. Heavy breathing could be heard, and then a voice like velvet reached out of the darkness. "And you're _sure_ that Sasuke-kun is dead? Because if this is not true, you will soon find yourself with one less head attached to your shoulders, Kabuto."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama. Sasuke suffered a fatal wound from the Kyūbi jinchūriki's final attack. Immediately afterwards his eyes were transplanted into Naruto-kun." the man replied.

A silence stretched through the black room before finally being broken.

"Kukukukuku. I see. And because of the boy's nature as a jinchūriki, there is no way to apply the cursed seal to him or use his body, nor are there any Uchiha left who I can use as a host."

Orochimaru's following laugh was that of a madman, one who had almost had everything, but had now lost it all.

When he had calmed himself, he turned to his lieutenant.

"Kabuto. Make sure that Itachi Uchiha is aware of this. I'm sure he'll be… interested in the fate of his dear brother."

The grey-haired medic nodded and walked out of the room.

"Perhaps this situation can at least be salvaged for some form of amusement."

* * *

"Hinata-sama! Welcome home." The branch member guard for the day bowed at her as she wearily dragged herself into her large house. She nodded at him, even as she made her way forward to her room and the bath. Today had been the first day of her training with Anko-sensei. She'd told Naruto about it, and he'd made a face at hearing who it was, but had been happy she was trying to get stronger, even if she hadn't admitted the reason to him yet. She didn't know if she could do that for a while.

The training had been torture.

Parts of her clothes were torn, her jacket ripped and dirtied. Her muscles burned from the movements they'd been put through, stretched and flexed in directions they had never gone before in the effort to evade Anko-sensei's knives and snakes.

And yet, Hinata had found herself loving every second of it.

The woman had made her talk while they were sparring. And in the middle of a fight where you were running and evading in fear of your life, there was no time for thinking of the 'proper' responses. No time for stuttering. No time for blushing or fainting. And not answering only made the attacks come quicker.

"What do you hate about your family?"

"Why are the Hyūga such stuck-up bitches about that damn seal?"

"How does your father piss you off?"

"What would you tell him if he did X"

"How long have you liked the Kyūbi brat?"

Hinata had actually gotten angry after that one, and had begun retaliating with intent to harm against the woman.

Anko had just laughed and smiled viciously, continuing the questions even more.

"Hinata. It is past the time for you to return." Her father's voice drew her from her thoughts. He sat in the front room, looking at her with stern eyes, a spread of paperwork on the table in front of him.

… why was he working in the front room instead of his office? Had he been waiting on her?

"I was training with a new sensei, father." she answered.

He searched her face, making her want to look away, to look down, but she kept her eyes locked on him. "And who is this new teacher?"

"Anko Mitarashi."

Hiashi raised an eyebrow in surprise. "The snake summoner."

"Hai." she confirmed flatly.

"I suppose you will be out late most nights then, if you are truly training with a person like _her_. Very well. I will permit this. But if it appears to be impacting your performance in your own training here, it will be stopped immediately."

"I understand." There was no chance of that happening. Anko-sensei worked most of the day in the T&I division, which overlapped exactly with the times that Hinata would be training with her family. It worked out perfectly.

Hiashi nodded. "Good." That was his dismissal.

He turned from her back to the paperwork that sat in front of him, the scritching of his pen sounding in the silence as Hinata walked away quickly down the hallway to her room.

And because of her haste, she failed to catch the smile that Hiashi's face had gained.

* * *

"Please! Take me on as your apprentice!"

Sakura bowed deeply at the waist in front of the Godaime Hokage, her voice pleading.

Tsunade looked at her in interest. In all seriousness, she had expected the girl to come to her before now. She was perfect material for a skilled medic-nin, and even had the control to possibly inherit some of the slug Sannin's own personal techniques.

"Oh? Why?" she asked questioningly, as if she hadn't already decided and would've reached out to the girl within the week if she hadn't come to the Sannin on her own.

Sakura stood up. "Because I need to be stronger. To protect them. The people I care about. My teammates. My friends… I'm too weak. If I had been stronger…"

Good.

The girl had taken her guilt and depression at the situation and rebounded nicely, turning it into a drive to become better that couldn't possibly be any more willful.

Sakura Haruno had proven her strength.

"I accept." Tsunade grinned. "But the next years are going to be a hell you've never known."

* * *

"Naruto?" Kakashi knocked on the door to the boy's apartment. "Naruto? You in there?"

Muffled footsteps reached the door, and it opened on squeaky hinges. "Kakashi-sensei?"

He raised a hand and eye-smiled. "Yo."

"… what're you doing here?" the blonde asked, red eyes spinning lazily. They looked so strange on his face.

Kakashi pushed those thoughts away, focusing on the boy's question.

"I heard you got discharged this morning. I'm just here to check up on my cute little genin. Sakura's studying iryōjutsu as Hokage-sama's apprentice, so it's just you and me now."

"Oh." he responded somberly at the reminder of the missing fourth member of their team.

Hm… It looked like the boy needed something to distract him. Fortunately, Kakashi had brought _just_ the thing.

A book.

And _no_ , it wasn't one of _those_ books, thank you very much.

The silver-haired jōnin reached into the bag at his hip and pulled the text out. "Since you're probably not up for physical training or ninjutsu for the next week or so, I thought you might like to learn something that doesn't require any of that. And knowing your style of learning, it'll probably work out okay even if you mess something up."

The blonde perked up, taking the offered book.

"… An Introduction to Fūinjutsu?" he asked, reading the title and then looking up at Kakashi in confusion.

"The same book my sensei gave me for learning. That was the Fourth Hokage's book." Naruto's eyes went wide. Hook, line, and sinker. "All of the Hokage have been skilled in Fūinjutsu, the Yondaime in particular, you know…" Kakashi trailed off, waiting for Naruto to make the jump in his own mind.

"I have to learn this!" he said excitedly.

The copy-cat ninja eye-smiled again. "I'm glad to see you have such enthusiasm about it, as it's a difficult art. You'll need that if you're going to succeed." Just a little push.

"I'll learn it! I'll become the best there is!" And there we go. Total commitment.

"Well, if you're really that sure…" The boy nodded vigorously. "I'd suggest you try it with your shadow clones. Bad seals tend to… explode. But the shadow clone is perfect for something like this. After all, you're getting all the experience they get too…"

"EHHHHH!?" The jinchūriki stared at him with wide eyes, almost looking like they would fall out of his face.

Kakashi feigned surprise and ignorance. "You didn't know that? Shadow clones return memory and experience. It's supposed to be part of the introduction for learning the technique…"

Naruto looked sheepish. "I… uh… kinda skipped that part."

"Well, now you know, right? And with the number of clones you can make, I can imagine you learning things very quickly, since you're getting everything they're studying."

"Whooaaaa…" Kakashi nodded, pleased with himself at being able to get the boy motivated again.

It wouldn't just be fast. It would be _absurdly_ fast. He'd seen the blonde make a collection of six hundred without breaking a sweat. If he did that for a week straight, twelve hours a day, he'd have the equivalent learning experience of… five and three-quarter years. Good _gods_. What had he just done? What had he unleashed?

Well, too late for regrets now.

"So why don't you try it out?" he asked. The boy nodded, and ran inside to get something. Kakashi watched curiously. In a few seconds, he had returned with a pair of sunglasses.

Smart thinking. Looks like the boy had more sense than the jōnin had considered when it came to his public image.

"Alright Kakashi-sensei! See you later!" he said, locking the door and then running past him down the hall, presumably to a training ground, as Kakashi watched, amused.

 _Minato-sensei would be proud of you, Naruto. You'll make a fine Hokage someday… and I'm going to make sure you get there._

* * *

"Urrrhhh" All of these fancy words and math-like things were giving him a headache. "Why is this so hard!?"

Well, Kakashi-sensei _had_ said it would be difficult.

But all the Hokages knew how to do this!

… They must have all been geniuses or something.

But he would prove them wrong! Even if he wasn't all that smart, he'd still learn this!

Because he'd said he would, and he never went back on his word, damn it!

* * *

"Ano, Naruto-kun?" A hand shook his shoulder. "Naruto-kun?

"Hrghm…" he opened his eyes slowly, blinking in the light. "Hinata-chan?" The blue-haired girl nodded. "What're you doin' here?"

"I saw you sleeping, and thought I should wake you up. It's almost four." she told him.

"Shit! Really?" Hinata nodded.

"AGGHH. It's these damn seals! I can't understand them. They're all confusing words and weird names and stuff. I don't get it!" he complained.

She giggled. "I'm sure you can do it, Naruto-kun."

"Hey! Hinata! Do you know anything about sealing?"

"Um, just a little…" It was mostly from her family's cursed seal. But she still knew a little bit. Kurenai-sensei had showed them how to write basic exploding tags, even if they weren't as strong as the store ones.

"Great! Do you think you could help me, then?"

Hinata fidgeted, thinking. She had training with Anko-sensei, and then work with Kurenai-sensei, plus her own clan training. She was pretty busy to start seriously learning something like fūinjutsu.

 _But this is Naruto-kun! He's_ _ **asking**_ _for my help!_

She nodded, and sat down on the grass next to on his left, slightly facing him. "What is it?"

"Um… this calligraphy stuff. On the first page."

Ah.

"W-well, here, I think I can show you…"

* * *

The unnatural sense that there was someone else in his room tore Naruto from his dreams, forcing him to complete alertness at a rate that would've only been matched by a veteran jōnin.

It was a sense that had saved him more than once before from the stupid villagers.

His heart pounded as he sat up in bed, quickly pulling out the kunai that he kept under his pillow and holding it in a reverse grip while he looked around frantically, trying to see if there really was anything, or it was just a dumb squirrel, like the last time.

And then his gaze landed on the glowing red eyes in the corner of the room, a circle of three tomoe rotating around the pupil slowly.

A man stepped calmly out of the shadow of the corner, the moonlight from the window illuminating his face and the deep tear-troughs that were its most obvious feature, his black hair looking like pitch, blending with the darkness behind him.

Naruto tightened his grip on the kunai as he looked at that face.

The face of Itachi Uchiha.

"Hello, Naruto-kun."

* * *

 **A/N:**

These scenes are so much shorter than I'm used to writing. I blame the fact that I'm working with an ensemble cast instead of my usual single character focus, and still haven't felt like I've 'dropped' into the heads of the characters yet.

Please Review! Tell me what you like, what you dislike. How are the characters? How is the pacing? Where do you see this going? Where would you like it to go? Those kinds of things.

18


	3. Bonds

Guest-who-thinks-because-secrets-are-revealed-story-will-be-short: Nope. I play the long story game. This will probably be around oh... 200,000 words? At the least? Don't quote me on that if we end up going past my guesstimate.

 **Disclaimer:** You guys all know it by now. I'm just not even going to bother with this any more.

* * *

 **Chapter 3:**  
 **Bonds**

Naruto's heart pounded like a drum, the adrenaline in his veins forcing him to full awareness in microseconds as he stared at Itachi.

This was the man that Sasuke had attacked with his strongest technique, yet Itachi hadn't treated the attack like it was anything but a nuisance.

The blonde would have no chance. In a odd sense of thoughtfulness for him, he decided that running away would probably be the best thing to do.

Naruto looked around the room rapidly, searching for a route to escape. The window to the left of him was closed, and Itachi was right next to the door.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that window had gotten broken.

He jumped at it, throwing his full weight behind the motion, attempting to ensure that the glass would be broken so he could fall and roll onto the roof below it. But instead of connecting with the pane of glass, a hand held him by his arm, halting his motion only inches away from the possible exit.

"There is no need for that, Naruto-kun. I'm not here to harm you."

The utter confusion that Naruto felt must have been apparent on his face, because Itachi sighed, and pulled him back over the bed so that he wouldn't just fall onto the hard wooden floor when released. The hand let go, and Naruto bounced slightly on the mattress as he landed. His kunai was still in his right had, and he held it out in front of himself defensively, even though he knew the small knife would be no match against the man in front of him.

"I'm here to talk."

"Ohhhhh." Naruto lowered his weapon, shifting to a cross-legged position on his bed.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so comfortable?" he asked, curious at the blonde's immediate lowering of his guard.

"'Cause. There's no way Sasuke's brother could get in my room and want to talk to me, since he's trying to capture me. And if he _could_ get in my room, then he'd have already gotten me. So you've gotta be a dream." the boy explained, nodding to himself in satisfaction with his reasoning.

Itachi's eyebrow dropped. "Your logic is valid, but unsound."

"Huh?"

"You assume that I'm trying to capture you." he answered.

Naruto squinted at him. "You're weird, dream-Sasuke's brother."

Itachi sighed slightly. "I'm not a dream, Naruto. If you think I am, wake yourself up."

The boy was thoughtful as he considered the man's suggestion, and then reached over and pinched his left arm.

Hard.

"OWW!" Naruto looked around the room. Itachi was still there.

"Y-y-you're not a dream." he said, lifting his kunai back up with a shaky hand. The adrenaline that had been keeping his mind clear before was now gone, and he was feeling the full effects of the fear he held towards the man in front of him.

"Yes." Itachi confirmed.

"W-what do you want? A-are you here to take me? Are you going to kill me? I-I didn't mean for Sasuke to die, I swear!" the boy stammered out.

"No. I said that my intentions are not to capture you. And I'm already aware of what happened concerning my brother's death."

"Huh!?"

"I saw your fight, and heard my brother's final words." Itachi lied. It hadn't actually been him. Zetsu had been watching and then reported what had happened only seconds after Kakashi had left with Naruto and Sasuke's body. But it had taken three days for Kisame and Itachi to travel from where they had been to somewhere close enough to Konoha for Itachi to have a chance to find the boy.

Those three days had given him much time to think of the events and the situation. He first reactions (although he had not shown it) had been a combination of sadness, resignation, and then regret. He had known he'd wanted to see Naruto immediately after hearing the news, but it hadn't been until hours later that he'd actually determined the source of the impulse.

"Y-you were there!?" the blonde exclaimed.

"Yes."

"B-but then, why're you here!?"

"To warn you." the man told him earnestly.

"Ehhh?"

"My brother decided to entrust you with both his eyes and his final wishes. And I will trust his decision as well."

If Sasuke had given Naruto his eyes willingly, as he had, there was a deep significance to the action for an Uchiha. Their Sharingan were their pride, the very representation of their clan. Giving those to a person, especially when the Uchiha in question was on their deathbed, was the equivalent of declaring the receiver their successor in ideology and that they trusted the person to carry out their wishes without a doubt.

Sasuke had truly acknowledged Naruto as his brother in everything but blood in those last moments, a role that Itachi had willingly, _foolishly_ , given up in his selfish quest for redemption. Oh, he had deluded himself with excuses such as he was making Sasuke stronger, strengthening his ties to the village, or giving him the opportunity to achieve closure.

But by far the largest reason had been because of Itachi's unbelievable guilt and wish for release from it. However, he could not take his own life. He was a tool of Konohagakure and could still be useful to them until his time came, whether from his brother or the disease that even now ate away at his organs.

Now, however, he recognized that taking that choice from Sasuke, forcing him onto the path of avenger and effectively destroying any chance at regaining a somewhat normal life or childhood, was wrong. Something he should not have done.

"B-but didn't you hate him? He hated you! All he wanted was to kill you!" Naruto asked in confusion.

"I never hated my brother. I loved him. I only pushed him towards that path in hopes that he would grow strong enough to be able to kill me, strengthening his ties to this village." the Uchiha explained.

"That doesn't make any sense!"

Itachi shook his head. "Not everything can be understood at once, Naruto-kun. Only once you have all of the pieces will the picture resolve itself. My brother's death because of his desire for power at any cost was my doing, and I now realize that it was wrong to force that decision onto him. Because Sasuke has passed on his will to you, I will ensure that you live so that his will does not die and I might atone for some small part of my sins."

"A-and so what? What does that mean?"

"It does not matter right now." he said stoicly, unwilling to reveal everything at once. "I am here to tell you that the Akatsuki are moving forward with their plan. The five-tails jinchūriki has already been captured, and the bijū sealed. The next is the seven-tails in eight months. You are intended as the last, in four years. You have four years to-"

Naruto cut him off. "They killed one of us...?" He looked up at Itachi, his eyes spinning wildly.

"Yes."

"..." Naruto's irises began circling faster as he subconsciously pushed more and more chakra towards them until they changed shape, morphing into a six-pointed star.

 _Mangekyō!?_

How...!? He was sure Sasuke had not gained the Mangekyō Sharingan, which meant Naruto himself had unlocked the eye's evolution. A non-Uchiha. That was _unheard_ of.

 _You truly are one to watch, Naruto-kun._

The boy growled, the whisker-marks on his cheeks becoming darker, his pupils becoming slits embedded perfectly within the pattern of his eyes. "Where?"

"...where?" Itachi asked, not understanding.

"Where are they!? The next one!" he rumbled, his voice sounding like it came from his chest.

"I only know they are located in Takigakure." the man answered honestly. "Are you concerned about them? You don't even know-"

Naruto glared at him, the Mangekyō pattern in his eyes glowing dangerously, his face shrouded in darkness. The silver light of the moon behind him highlighted his golden hair, making him look almost ethereal. "We're the only ones who understand each other. Who know what it's like. They're precious to me, even if I don't know them."

Meeting Gaara had changed him. Naruto had realized that it was possible that the others like him could have it far worse than he had, and be in just as much need of a friend. Nobody deserved the treatment they got as living seals. Living _sacrifices_. Nobody was willing to help them when they needed it. Or in Gaara's case, even be a friend.

It made his blood boil.

This group was hunting down the people who were practically his siblings through circumstance, those that had been condemned to their fate without a choice, a life of holding the tailed beasts. Eventually, the Akatsuki would even come for Gaara and him. But he was _not_ going to stand by doing nothing, knowing that the others could die for some stupid reason he didn't even know.

 _Not if I can do anything about it._ he thought angrily.

Sasuke had given him these eyes, this power, to protect the people he cared about. What good was it if he didn't use it? He had made a vow. And he would keep it, no matter what.

"... I see." Itachi paused, deciding to change the subject to keep the conversation on-topic. "That's only the first thing I'm here to warn you about. The second is potentially more dangerous. You must beware the roots beneath the tree, Naruto. You've gained a power that will make them nervous and even seek to destroy you. Your rapid development and progress will only make them more wary. Watch your every step, and be aware of those who you trust."

"W-what!? What do you mean?" Naruto asked, not understanding metaphor that the man had used.

"A man named Danzō Shimura, Naruto. Do not trust him." Itachi's voice was deadly serious. "He will seek to use you and break you, turning you only into a shell of what you are. Do not let him. When he discovers that you won't bend to his will, he'll turn to trying to eliminate you."

Naruto nodded slowly, his eyes morphing back to their original three-tomoe state as he calmed down. "O-okay."

"Good. I'll be watching you, Naruto-kun, to ensure that you uphold my brother's will and that you live so long as you are. Don't tell anyone of this meeting."

Naruto gulped. He could hear the implied _or else_.

The Uchiha turned, as if to leave.

"W-wait!" the blonde said, reaching out with his left hand, the one without the kunai. "Why... why did you do it?"

"...?" Itachi looked at him blankly.

"... kill your family. You... you don't seem like you're a bad person ...now. S-so why did you do it?" he asked.

Naruto couldn't understand why anyone would do something so terrible. Before it had seemed like Itachi was crazy. But now, it felt to him like the man was just... alone.

"..." the ex-ANBU captain stared at him. "Because I had no choice. To protect the Will of Fire."

Without any warning, he broke apart into a murder of crows, flapping and cawing as they dissolved into the inky shadows of Naruto's room.

He had no choice? What did that mean?

Naruto was left completely lost, staring at the place that the man had been until he finally became too tired and lay down, surrendering to sleep.

* * *

The sound of birds chirping woke him the next morning, and Naruto yawned widely before remembering the events of the night.

Itachi.

He had been here, and what the man had told him only served to raise more questions.

Why hadn't he captured him?

Why had he warned him of those things?

Allegedly to protect Naruto himself because of Sasuke's death and Itachi's wish to honor his brother's wishes.

He had _said_ he'd only pushed Sasuke to kill him because of he wanted Sasuke to be closer to the village. But that made no sense.

Had _everything_ so far been an act? And if he was as sane and even... _normal_ as he had seemed, it made no sense why he would have killed his own family.

The only clue Naruto had was that it was to 'protect the Will of Fire', which Naruto didn't understand at all.

Thinking about it made his head hurt.

And _then_ there was the fact that the other jinchūriki were being captured and killed.

He hated it.

They were seen as demons by the civilians, and weapons by the shinobi. And this group was going around and killing them like they had no right to live.

It made him _furious_.

Itachi had told him where their next target was. Takigakure. That gave him a lead, plus ero-sennin would probably be okay with doing anything that got him more information about the Akatsuki.

Naruto would not let another one of them be killed.

* * *

He was bored.

After a breakfast of plain toast and some eggs (he didn't eat ramen _all_ the time) , he had tried to decide what to do for the day. Tsunade-baachan had made him promise not to do any physical training or ninjutsu for a week to make sure his body had completely healed. But that left him able to do almost nothing.

Only that sealing stuff. And it was _hard_.

Hinata-chan had helped him with his calligraphy (his clones were practicing around him in the field of the training ground he was using), and Naruto was trying to read the following chapter to get an idea for what was next. But reading was getting him nowhere. He'd been staring at this page for the last half hour, and _still_ had no better idea what it was talking about than when he'd read it the first time.

It kept talking about character types and elements and weights and influence and balance. It left him in a sea of confusion that he was struggling not to drown in.

Hinata had shown him a "simple" exploding tag and what Kurenai had taught her about them. It turns out you can't just write "This should explode". There was all this stuff about blast size, radius, delay, rate of burn, and even how the chakra was converted into a rapid exothermic reaction that caused the explosion itself.

It was not "simple". He had been lost until she had started explaining it using simpler words.

 _Yes_ , his new eyes allowed him to remember what it had looked like, and probably even let him reproduce it with some effort at drawing the characters, but he didn't want to just remember what a seal looked like.

He wanted to understand them.

And _that_ was why he was forcing himself to stare at this page of unintelligible words at seven in the morning, trying to divine their meaning.

... Which was doing nothing.

Where was Kakashi-sensei when he needed him?

"Yo."

"AHHHHHHH!" Naruto jumped, startled from the unexpected intrusion, and looked to the left, staring wide-eyed at the silver-haired jōnin.

"Mah. No need to get so excited Naruto, I already told you it was just you and me from now on." Kakashi said.

Naruto slowly settled down, calming his pounding pulse. "...right."

Now _was_ about the time when they were all supposed to meet to do their training together. Except Kakashi had never shown up any earlier than nine.

"I see you took my advice on the clones." he commented, looking around at the veritable ocean of blondes, all with scroll, ink, and a brush. "Smart of you to have them do calligraphy." Naruto smiled at the praise. The jōnin turned back to him, eyeing the book in his lap. "But you look like you're not making much progress, hm?"

"It's all these weird words!" Naruto defended.

Kakashi shook his head. "It's because you learn better by doing instead of just reading. I knew you'd have trouble with just the book, which is why I'm here. I can go over things with you and show you how they work in practice, which should help you understand the concepts."

"Oh. Thanks, sensei."

The man smiled and waved it off. "It's what I'm here for, right?"

* * *

Anko twirled a kunai around her finger, facing Hinata. "So. You're getting better about evasion and learning when to strike and when to dodge. But you're still too predictable in your attacks and counters. You know anything besides Jūken?"

They stood in a field close to Training Ground 44, the Forest of Death, which was where Anko preferred to do their training. She said it was more about nostalgia than anything, but Hinata had a suspicion that there was more to it.

"My family does not teach anything other than taijutsu and chakra manipulation techniques." she answered quietly.

"Huh. That must suck. And Nai-chan hasn't tested your affinities or anything?" the tokubetsu jōnin asked.

Hinata shook her head in denial.

Hyūga family techniques were all pure chakra. No elemental transformation at all. It made it easier to teach everybody the same thing, since there was no training required in which one person could be better because of an affinity.

"Looks like we got something to do then. I'll have to get some chakra paper. But for now..."

The kunai that had been twirling aimlessly around the woman's pointer was now flying quickly at Hinata's forehead.

She had learned early on that Anko did not pull punches. Every attack she made was able to inflict serious injury in some way, but at the same time, she never made lethal attacks unless she was sure Hinata could defend against them. The Hyūga had also quickly discovered that blocking was _much_ more taxing than just leaning a few inches to avoid an attack. She'd stopped intercepting things yesterday, instead using flexibility to avoid strikes and weapons that aimed for her, trying to take those openings to attack the purple-haired woman.

Anko had told her not to hold back, that she could take Hinata's attacks. She... wasn't too sure about that and still avoided using a _complete_ chakra touch when attacking.

Hinata leaned four inches to the right, not even shifting her feet, allowing the kunai to sail past her.

"Good. You've learned that blocking is a terrible idea when you can avoid." Anko commented. "But chakra techniques aren't going to be some sort of complete solution to your predictability." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, staring off to the right of Hinata. "Mmmm... I wonder if we could integrate some of _Hebi_ into your style without making your clan go apeshit about 'destroying their sacred art'. You can't all use the same style, 'cause everybody's a little different. You're pretty flexible, so it would work well if we could do it."

The Hyūga tapped her fingers together nervously before noticing what she was doing and shoving her hands behind her back. "A-ano. I don't know if that would be a good idea..."

Her father would probably react just like Anko had described, declaring it sacrilege to their ancestors and the style that had been passed down for generations.

"Yeah, well, I've never given a shit about what people think. And you shouldn't either, girly. Being what people expect just weighs you down. You can't be anything special if you do that." the woman said. "And you want to impress that boy of yours, don't you...?" Hinata blushed, and struggled to keep her eyes from going towards the ground. "Ahahahahaha! I don't think I'll ever get tired of that. But c'mon, get over here." The blue-haired girl eyed her cautiously. Anko had tried more than once to lull her into a false sense of security. "Smart, but I won't attack you this time."

Hinata walked over to the tokubetsu jōnin, still wary.

Anko rolled her eyes. " _Relax_ girl. You won't be able to get this if you're so damn tense. The first stance is this..."

* * *

"Yo, Naruto."

The mentioned blonde turned around at the mention of his name as Shikamaru pushed aside the cloth sign of Ichiraku Ramen. "Hey Shikamaru! Whatcha doing?"

The Nara looked at him with half-lidded eyed. "I was watching clouds. Then Temari found me and told me to go do something other than just lay around all the time. She's almost as bad as my mom. I went and saw Chōji, but he's still recovering and can't even get out of bed yet. So I was just walking around. What about you?"

Naruto didn't have a bowl of ramen in front of him, which was so out of place that Shikamaru did a double take. Instead of a bowl, there was a scroll, while Naruto held a brush in one hand.

"Oh! Sealing stuff! Kakashi-sensei's teaching me. I'm supposed to solve this thingy, and then I can get ramen! Teuchi-jiisan won't give me any unless this one matches the answer he's got. Kakashi said something about 'incentives'."

That... was downright _devious_. Fūinjutsu was notoriously difficult to learn. But when it came to Naruto and ramen, nothing would stand in his way.

Shikamaru got onto a stool to take a better look. The seal was simple, only six characters. At least, so far.

"This one's broken. I'm supposed to fix it so it lights up when you use it." Naruto said. "Sensei said I had to do this one 'cause it won't blow up if you get something wrong." The blonde chewed on the end of his brush thoughtfully, screwing up his face as he stared in front of him. And then his eyes landed on the glowing red-hot electric burner over in the corner. "Ah! I got it!" Shikamaru watched him as he wrote the character for 'heat' in a missing spot in the collection. The blonde channeled chakra into the tag, looking at it anxiously before the circular area in the center of the seal started glowing white. "Yatta! Hey old man, bring me a bowl! I finally got it!"

The owner of the restaurant poked his head out of the back, looking around the corner. "Oh you did, did you? Well let me see it first." he said, walking to the counter and pulling out a scroll which he unrolled in his hands. Naruto turned his own paper around so that Teuchi could see it. The older man nodded in satisfaction. "Good job. One bowl, coming up." He rolled the scroll up and put it in his apron as Naruto did the same, shoving it into a pocket of his jumpsuit.

"Would you like anything?" Teuchi asked Shikamaru, placing a large bowl in front of the blonde on his right, who eagerly snapped the accompanying pair of chopsticks and started slurping noodles up.

"Ehhh. I'm fine." he replied. "I already ate." _Troublesome mothers._ He turned to Naruto. "So you're learning sealing, huh? And not just the small stuff, but all the way."

The other boy nodded, swallowing. "M-hm! All the Hokages knew it, so I've gotta know it too."

Ah. So that's how he'd been convinced. Shikamaru couldn't imagine someone like Naruto just randomly trying to learn something like fūinjutsu and actually keeping with it without some deep personal reason. Which he obviously had.

And when Naruto decided to do something, he didn't give up until he'd done it.

Everybody knew that.

* * *

Sakura stared at the whiteboard in the front of the room as the instructor at the front droned on.

When she'd asked to be Tsunade's apprentice, she'd expected to, you know, actually _learn_ from the woman.

But noooo.

 _Instead_ , she had to go through the year-long iryōnin program. They didn't even start working with animals until three months in. And they wouldn't even _touch_ living people until the ninth month.

She sighed. She'd already gone through the textbooks, looking at everything they would cover. Everything from basic cellular biology to human physiology to genetics and bloodline limits. It was a lot of material. She could understand why they did it. And even agreed with the requirement Hokage-sama had given her. But that didn't make the classes any less boring than they were.

Sakura wondered what Naruto and Kakashi were doing. She hadn't seen either of the two for the past two days, since Naruto had been released from the hospital. It was only then that she'd realized she didn't even know where the blonde lived, and therefore couldn't see how he was.

She was still wrestling with her feelings over Sasuke and his death, but there was nothing to be done about that.

She had a feeling she would be doing it for a while.

The professor stopped talking, and looking at the clock, Sakura noted that it was 3:00, the time that classes ended for the day. Picking up her bag, she walked out of the classroom, through the halls of the Academy (who'd have thought she'd end up here again less than two years after graduating), and out the door, breathing in the fresh air of the outside.

She found herself wandering towards the training area where Kakashi had given them the bell test. Walking through the trees to the clearing where it had all started, she was shocked to find the swathe of yellow that greeted her in the form of hundreds of clones seated on the ground.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" one of the Narutos said. On hearing his words, all of the others turned towards her in waves, red eyes looking up at her from under blonde hair. Sakura repressed the impulse to shiver under their gaze. The scene was just _creepy_.

"Uh, hey." she said weakly. "I didn't expect you to be here. What are you doing?" It looked like all of the clones had a scroll in front of them and a brush in their hands.

"Practicing kanji!" one of them said. "We're learning sealing! Isn't that cool?"

Sakura blinked, dumbfounded.

 _Sealing!?_ This _was_ Naruto, right? What the heck could motivate him enough to learn something as intellectual as _sealing_?

The collective seemed to be waiting for a response. "Y-yeah. It is pretty cool." she responded.

The Narutos nodded vigorously in agreement. "It's really hard, but Kakashi-sensei is helping us. He even gave us his book! It was the Fourth Hokage's!" one in the front said excitedly. "It's confusing, but Kakashi said that's just because I learn by doing stuff instead of reading."

Yeah, that was more like the Naruto she knew. Which meant the world _wasn't_ coming to an end like she had feared

Thank gods.

"You're with Tsunade-baachan now, right?" the same one asked, which appeared to have become the designated speaker. The majority of the others not in her immediate vicinity turned back to their work, leaving only a circle of about a dozen or so actually paying attention to her.

"Not... really. I have to go through the standard medic-nin program first. " she told him. "Which is a year."

They looked at her with surprise. "That's kinda long, ne?"

"Yeah..." Sakura sighed, leaning backwards against the tree she was standing in front of. "But she told me I have to do this if I'm going to be her student. She'll still do a few things with me, but until I've graduated I won't officially be her apprentice."

Some of the Narutos nodded in sympathy. "I wouldn't go back to school even if you paid me. It sucked."

She smiled slightly at the thought of Naruto willingly going back to school. That really _would_ mean the world was ending.

Those days at the Academy seemed so far away. They'd been so naïve and innocent back then. But hearing about the things that happened to ninja and experiencing them first hand were totally different. She'd known that the death-rate of newly minted genin in their first year was anywhere from fifteen to thirty five percent of a graduating class. That decreased as ninja got older, but only because the ones who survived got stronger and learned from the experiences.

She'd just never expected those statistics to affect _them_.

With Sharingan Kakashi, Sasuke Uchiha the clan prodigy, Naruto the loud-mouthed stamina freak, and... _her_. Well, she honestly would have expected it to be her out of all of them.

But instead it had been Sasuke. And now she was studying to become one of the apprentices of the strongest ninja, resolved to never let another teammate die, while Naruto was _visibly_ more subdued and thoughtful, approaching things with a level of seriousness and commitment she'd never expected to see from him.

"We've really changed, haven't we?" she commented softly.

The clones became downcast. "Yeah... It's different..." the speaker said, trailing off.

 _without Sasuke._ was the unsaid ending.

Without Sasuke, there was a hole in their life. In their team. But nobody around them seemed affected. Everybody's life went on like normal.

When the Third had died, everybody had been somber for a few weeks following, like a cloud had descended over Konoha. But Sasuke wasn't nearly as important to as many people as the Third Hokage had. No. He had only been that important to the other members of Team 7.

 _You were an_ _ **idiot**_ _to throw that away, Sasuke-kun._ she thought sadly.

And now their team was down to three, never knowing if something might happen to reduce that even further before they were strong enough to prevent it from happening again.

"...Hey, you want to go out and get lunch sometime?" Sakura asked. The collection of clones stared at her. "Not a date. Just friends." she clarified.

"I figured..." he said, staring down at the ground. "I... I don't want a date. It's like... we're family now. It'd just be weird, ya know?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

* * *

Itachi blinked as the memories of his shadow clone returned to him almost a day after he'd sent it out.

... Mangekyō?

Yes, with something like that it would best to keep a closer eye on Naruto-kun.

"What's wrong?" the blue-skinned man on his left asked.

"Nothing."

* * *

The paper in Hinata's hand crinkled.

"Lightning?" Anko questioned incredulously, staring at the square. "Well, shit. I was sure you were going to be Fire. I don't know the Lightning transformation exercises. Hrm." She stood thinking for a second. "Ah! Come on, I know just the guy we can bug about this."

She ran off, leaving Hinata standing there before she hurriedly followed her rather explosive sensei.

The Hyūga caught up with her just as they exited the training ground.

"...Knowing him he's probably over at the Stone. If he's not, I'll just get one of my snakes to track him down since the place is practically covered in his scent." Anko explained as they jumped between trees. "It's not too much farther."

They broke out of the foliage, greeted by a sea of Narutos who stared at them with wide eyes. Well, stared at Anko. Hinata blinked at the sight while the snake summoner jumped down to the ground and went up to the closest one. "Hey brat, you seen Kakashi?"

The conglomeration pointed further on down the mass towards a tree where the silver-haired jōnin sat with another blonde. More than likely the real one.

Hinata followed the purple-haired woman as they made their way over to the man. "Hey Kakashi!"

He turned his head and eye-smiled. "Hello, Anko."

The blonde in front of him whipped his head around. "Crazy snake lady!?"

"Hey brat, how's it going? Miss me?" He shook his head quickly. "Aw. I'm hurt."

"Hello, Naruto-kun." Hinata greeted from her spot on the purple-haired woman's right.

"Hey Hinata-chan!"

"What do you need?" Kakashi asked, looking at the tokubetsu jōnin.

"Jeez, Kakashi. Can't I just say hi?" He stared at her with a single half-lidded eye. "Alright, alright." Anko pulled Hinata in front of her, a hand on each shoulder. "Girl here has a Lightning affinity. And I got nothing for that. Think you could show us some stuff to start her off? Give her some tips or something?"

The man turned and looked at the boy next to him whose Sharingan circled slowly before returning to face Anko. "Actually, yes. It'd be a good lesson for Naruto as well." The boy perked up, curious. "Are you staying?"

"Eh, sure. Why the hell not." She sat down heavily cross-legged, and Hinata repeated the action.

"Has Anko told you about chakra natures?" Kakashi asked.

The Hyūga shook her head. "But we went over them in school..."

"Well, I'll go over it again for Naruto's benefit, then." He looked at the boy on his left and held out his hand palm facing up. "Here, Naruto, let me see that."

The blonde handed his brush over and Kakashi turned the scroll so it was facing him. "So there are five basic elements. Wind over Lightning. Lightning over Earth. Earth over Water. Water over Fire. Fire over Wind." he said, drawing the characters for each respective element in a circle with a line pointing to the next one. "This is the diagram of strengths and weaknesses. It means that if you have two techniques of the same power, one which is Fūton and the other which is Katon, the Fire technique will always overpower the Wind one. Understand so far?" The two genin nodded. "Everyone has at least one affinity, a nature that they are more in tune with and is easier for them to master. You can still learn other techniques, but they won't be as powerful until you master that nature as well. For example, I have a Raiton affinity, but can still use Suiton techniques, like you saw in Wave."

"Um... but Haku had those Ice-mirror things..." Naruto said. "And that's not an element, right?"

"Right. That's a kind of kekkei genkai which allows the user to combine two chakra natures instinctively and create a new one, called a recomposition" Kakashi drew more lines on the paper, arcs and lines that would intersect. "Hyōton is created from Water and Wind. Similarly, Mokuton, the Shodai Hokage's Wood element, is composed of Water and Earth. There are a number of them, but those are the two you already know about. Recomposition can be done without a kekkei genkai, but it takes decades of practice with control and the component natures to do that without the bloodline."

The blonde sat, his face scrunched up, while Hinata looked over the diagram on the scroll.

"...But what about Shikamaru's shadows? Or Chōji's giant-body stuff? Those aren't elemental things, but they're still chakra, right?"

"Those are Yin and Yang. They're a bit... complex, but basically, Yin is form without life, while Yang is life without form." The man noted Naruto's blank look. "Yin is tied to your mind, while Yang is connected your body. For instance, Yin is used in genjutsu, to manipulate a person's perception, while Yang is used by the Akimichi to enhance their bodies."

"... Okay. I think I get it."

"It's not really something you need to worry about right now, anyways. We're only going to be focusing on one of the basic elements. Lightning-natured chakra is created from high-frequency vibration. Here... I'll demonstrate. Both of you should be able to see this, Hinata, you'll need your Byakugan." The girl nodded, and the veins around her eyes bulged as she activated her dōjutsu. "Since this is just alteration of chakra, it doesn't require any hand signs."

Kakashi held his palm out and began creating Lightning chakra in the center, which sparked wildly in the air until he stopped. "Did you see that?"

The blonde nodded. "It was like your chakra was moving really, really fast and went all bluish and sparky."

"Right. That's the vibration. I did it slowly so you guys could see it. The best way to practice is to do what I just showed you, creating arcs in your palm until you get them to be about six inches long. Does that help?" he asked looking at Anko and Hinata.

"Yeah, that's perfect. Thanks Hatake, I owe you one."

"Mah. It's fine ...Naruto, have half your clones start practicing trying to convert their chakra to a Lightning nature."

The boy created a cross with his fingers, forming a single shadow clone, which then dispelled immediately. Half of the blondes in the field split off and started staring at their hands.

"Pretty fancy." Anko commented. "That's a hell of a training method you've got there, kid."

"Naruto's really the only one who can use something like this, but we've found it helps his progress ...a lot."

"I can imagine. Well, girl, you want to try what he told you now?" Hinata nodded in response. "Alright then. I'll leave you here to work with them since it's just about time for me to get back to work. Don't do anything I wouldn't while I'm gone, you hear?" she said, standing up and winking at the Hyūga. Hinata blushed. "Haha, see ya." The woman vanished in a swirl of leaves and a flash of purple.

"Hey, Hinata. What'd she mean by that?" Naruto asked.

Her face turned a whole new shade of red.

* * *

 **Two weeks later**

A loud 'fump' went off from the direction of Training Ground 3, causing people to stop, and then shake their heads as they thought they had only imagined the sound.

"Okay. Well. That's _not_ how a storage seal's supposed to work." Kakashi said.

Naruto and his collection of clones eyed the large fifty foot crater that had just been formed. Not by an explosion, but by his first storage seal imploding and absorbing everything around it in a radius of twenty five feet, the piece of paper that had the seal written on it floating through the air towards the bottom of the pit.

"Well, even though it's a failure, you should probably still remember how you made it. That might be pretty useful someday..." the one-eyed man commented, getting all of the blondes to nod in agreement.

One of the clones slid down the large depression to the bottom, picking up the piece of paper and staring at it for a moment to memorize it. "Okay! Got it! I'm going to try unsealing it now!" The clone channeled some chakra into the paper...

And was promptly crushed by two million pounds of soil.

The Narutos collectively winced as the memories of that clone's last moments came back to them in perfect detail. "Well, we know that it works, right?" he said, looking sheepishly at Kakashi.

"I guess that's one way to put it... but you should try and make a storage seal that _actually_ works." he replied, prompting murmured assents from all of the clones. "Where do you think the problem was?"

A clone 'hm'-ed thoughtfully, and then snapped its fingers. "That sub-array thingy! The one that has to do with detecting object sizes and stuff! I think that's what went wrong!"

"That would make sense, but where's the actual problem then?" Kakashi asked. "Was it technique? Or balance? Or something simpler?"

All of the Narutos adopted a thinking pose, comparing the seal they'd drawn with the one in the book by memory.

"Ah! We missed a radical!" one exclaimed.

"Which one?" another asked.

"On that third character to the right, five from the top!"

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhh" they all said together.

"Good." Kakashi eye-smiled. "Learn from this. Even the smallest mistake can result in a seal going bad. You were lucky it only did what we expected, just in an unexpected way. Normally, it would explode from chakra overload.

"Now, try it again."

* * *

"What the _hell_ have you been doing to Hinata?"

Anko grinned. "What, you don't like it?"

Kurenai shook her head "No, it's not bad... just, _different_."

There really wasn't any other way to put it.

She was still somewhat skittish at times, but now when Hinata was asked a question she would respond firmly, instead of the slight uncertainty that had always crept into her voice before. In the beginning when the response she gave was wrong she'd still retreat slightly. But by this second week she was now taking those mistakes as motivation to do better, and would only work harder when they happened. And lately there were times that Kurenai had noted the girl forcefully dragging her eyes up to people's faces, or hastily stopping the nervous tic whenever she caught herself. It wasn't a _ton_ of progress, but she was getting there.

"Well, I think it's great." The genjutsu mistress rolled her eyes at her friend's statement and took another sip of the drink that was in front of her on the bar. "The girl's finally getting the idea that unless you say something, nothing's going to change. It only took a couple of humiliating experiences before she grew a spine and figured out she could say 'no'. Less than I expected."

"I shouldn't even ask, should I?"

"Nope!" Anko responded cheerfully.

Kurenai sighed. "Just... leave _some_ of her psyche and personality intact, alright? She's such a sweet girl."

"Ehhh...? Do I have to?" she whined, getting a nod as an answer. "...Fiiiiineee." The purple-haired woman pouted. "But only because it's you, Nai-chan. She could have been like a mini-me..." the snake summoner said wistfully, staring off into the distance.

Kurenai shivered. _One_ Anko Mitarashi was more than enough. _Two_ would be a nightmare.

"I don't think Hiashi-sama would have appreciate you turning his eldest daughter into a clone of yourself." she retorted.

"Well, we'll never know _now_ , will we?" the snake summoner said shortly in mock bitterness. A moment of silence passed between them, only the sounds of the conversations around them filling the expanse. "You know, I'm thinking of giving her the snake contract."

Kurenai turned to look at the woman on her right in shock, who was staring at the tumbler of gin in her hands, rolling it between her palms on the counter-top. "Are... are you _serious!?_ " Anko made no sound, just continuing to rotate the glass. "Y-you really _are_ , aren't you? But that means you'd be taking her on as an actual apprentice!"

"...yeah." was the soft response.

"B-but... _why?_ "

Anko had sworn she'd _never_ take on a student because she wouldn't have time to coddle some kid and didn't want to go to the trouble.

The purplette sighed. "'Cause I've decided I'd be letting that bastard snake win if all my life meant was trying to kill him. And the girl's grown on me. She's smart. She works hard. She doesn't give up. It makes me _want_ to teach her stuff."

"... she reminds you of yourself." Kurenai said in flash of insight.

The woman next to her scoffed. "Tch. Yeah. Isn't that pathetic? Her, the _Hyūga no hime_."

The genjutsu mistress shook her head. "Hinata's not like that. She's had a really tough time with her family, being looked over and discarded in favor of her sister as the heiress. It makes sense that you could sympathize with that."

Anko was silent for a second before she replied. "...yeah. I know." She took a drink from the tumbler that she still held, and set it back down on the scarred and abused wooden surface that she was leaning on.

"Well, we'll have to talk to Hokage-sama about it. I'd still want her to go on missions with Team 8, at least most of them. I'm not too happy that you're taking one of my favorite students." Kurenai said harshly. And then her voice softened. "But I know what this means to you. So I'm happy that you're doing it."

Anko turned to her and smiled, even if it was tinged with slight melancholy. "Thanks, Nai-chan."

* * *

 **A/N:**

I think I've finally hit that sweet-spot that I try to get in writing scenes and characters.

... This is the second chapter in a row where I've had Naruto eating ramen. I hope that doesn't become a recurring theme, haha.

Please review! Every little thing helps :)


	4. Memories

**Chapter 4:**  
 **Memories**

"Nii-san! Nii-san!"

"…" Itachi turned around from where he sat on the edge of the genkan and stared at him.

"You were going to help me train with the Fireball today!" he whined.

"… I was too busy."

"You always say that!"

Itachi waved his hand, beckoning him to come closer, his expression as blank as ever.

 _Don._ A pair of fingers reached out and poked his forehead.

"Sorry, otouto. Next time, alright?" Itachi told him, smiling slightly.

* * *

Naruto woke with a start, gasping for air. A cold sweat drenched him, making his pajamas stick to his skin uncomfortably as he struggled to fill his lungs and catch his breath.

That dream had been so vivid. Uncomfortably vivid.

Even now, he could still see the shades of the wood paneling and the slight sheen of dust that had been in certain corners, the sunlight that had peeked through the slightly open door as Itachi had been putting on his sandals to leave.

Why had Itachi been in his dream? And what was that place? Naruto couldn't remember seeing any place like it.

His mind's rapid whirling slowly decelerated as he tried to puzzle over what it could mean. But in the end it only left him feeling exhausted and tired, unable to do anything more than re-position himself on his pillow before he fell into the comforting embrace of sleep.

* * *

Anko Mitarashi loved her job.

She was currently engaged in her favorite activity: "Information retrieval". Or as it was better known, interrogation. The physical kind.

The man strapped to the seat in front of her (an Iwa-nin) was quivering in his proverbial boots. They were in one of the small, windowless, solid concrete cubes that acted as the T&I department's working rooms, illuminated by the bright fluorescent tube light above that washed out any color. A selection of various sharp stainless-steel instruments were spread out on the metal table she stood behind, glinting from the bright light above. The man was looking at them fearfully, his eyes wide as he undoubtedly imagined the horrors that would soon be visited upon him with those very tools.

Unlike usual, Anko's focus was not on him. Instead, her thoughts were on the blue-haired girl that she had offered to teach on a mere amusing whim that she'd thought would only entertain her for a few days at most. Mostly just because she wanted to see someone like the Hyūga's own princess squirm. But instead of bowing out of the harsh and brutal training, Hinata had run full-force into it, embracing it with a fervor that Anko struggled to comprehend. Hinata's tenacity was appalling, even now when she was beginning to understand the drive behind it.

Without her notice, days of training had slipped into weeks. Idle curiosity had become vested interest. Mild amusement, understanding. And now, only three weeks later, she was actually planning on offering the girl the opportunity to become her apprentice.

Damn the girl had gotten under her skin.

Anko sighed as she ran her fingers across the handles of the tools in front of her, and the man whimpered in response.

Kurenai had hit right on the head when she'd guessed that Anko was sympathizing with Hinata.

Despite the fact that she hated Orochimaru and her greatest wish was to see him wiped off the face of the earth, preferably without enough left to even put in a shoebox, she couldn't deny that there was some pervasive mental trauma that remained from his betrayal of Konoha and subsequent abandonment of her.

At the time, he had been her sensei. A man she had looked up to and adored. Idolized. Having him declare her nothing more than a 'failed experiment' had hurt in ways she couldn't even describe. As she had grown up, that pain had slowly turned to bitterness and hatred as she recognized that her self-worth wasn't decided by what the assholes around her thought, but by what she decided it was.

But the pain was still there, like an old wound that refused to heal properly, twinging and pinching whenever you moved in the wrong direction.

Hinata… Hinata _clearly_ suffered from similar problems of confidence and doubt about her abilities that Anko had gone through at the same age, existing under an atmosphere of disapproval and even disgust directed at her. But instead of it originating from the civilian population as it had for the tokubetsu jōnin, it was from the girl's own family. Anko had been able to ignore the whispers and glares thrown in her direction by drowning herself in work and just detaching her emotions for the most part. Hinata didn't have that option. She had to return to her house and the constant oppressive environment that it represented every night without exception, weathering away at her own self-image.

At least, until now.

Now, Hinata had somehow found a purpose to no longer accept that. That boy. Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yōko. "Konoha's Number One Unpredictable Knucklehead Ninja" according to Kakashi.

Anko had looked him up after the first week. It'd been around then that she'd realized she was becoming invested in the girl's progress. And thus, she had needed to know more about the thing that drove her, what pushed her and inspired her so strongly.

Reading the boy's file had been unnerving.

She'd never really paid attention to him, despite having heard of him and seeing him around Konoha once or twice, but as she usually kept to herself and avoided social interaction on principle, she hadn't ever really known what had been going on with him.

Half of the first few pages had been covered in black ink, blocking out all but a few pieces of information (such as the fact that he _was_ , in fact, the living container for the most powerful bijū in existence). The rest, however… it hadn't been what she'd been expecting at all. Hell, she didn't even know what she _had_ been expecting, but it hadn't been that.

Seventeen broken bones before the age of eleven. Numerous compound fractures. Head trauma on no less than five separate occasions. And _those_ were only the things that had been major enough to warrant hospital treatment. Who knew what hadn't actually been recorded. The Kyūbi's presence and chakra reportedly granted him some form of advanced healing ability, which meant that he more than likely hadn't even been treated for cuts or flesh wounds.

He was vilified and hated by the civilians to a degree far worse than she had been. Not just passively, but _actively_ discriminated against. The same whispers and looks following him that she'd had to endure. At least _she_ had been a teenager when it had started, but he had suffered that experience his entire life.

It made her wonder how the fuck he had come out of it so well-adjusted. Hell, shinobi she tortured gave up their entire life's story for less pain than he had gone through. And she knew guys who had been mentally scarred for life from a fraction of the shit his file had talked about.

After reading through the entire thing, she'd gone out and gotten drunk, and she wasn't embarrassed to admit it. It was the sort of thing you needed following something like that.

But investigating him had definitely given her a better idea of why her cute little student was so inspired. The boy never gave up. He couldn't stay down. He just kept getting back up. Now, granted, that wasn't always a good idea, but _damn_ if it wasn't impressive with the things he'd endured. And continued to endure on a daily basis.

If _that_ was the inspiration that gave Hinata the desire overcome her own insecurities, Anko could find no fault with it. And the Hyūga had put that desire to full use, empowering her to work as hard as she could to get out of the same place the snake summoner had been. That effort and determination she had expressed was what had made Anko grow to like her so much, why she was going to give Hinata the chance to be her formal student.

The purple-haired woman picked up a gleaming silver knife from the table, her own image reflected in the flat of the blade as she twisted it around, the actions causing the man in front of her to begin making noises around the gag that was in his mouth.

Kurenai had requested that she leave some of the girl's personality intact. And she would, at least as much as she could, not intentionally manipulating the girl psychologically (unless requested, which was what had been the start of this whole thing). But really, in the end, it wasn't up to her. It was up to Hinata. Anko wouldn't push her to do wet-work, assassinations, or information retrieval missions, but if she was given the option of joining the tokubetsu jōnin on a mission of that type, and the girl accepted, it wasn't like she could say 'no'. It was just one of the consequences of becoming the official understudy to one of Konoha's best torture specialists.

Though, she secretly wished the girl _would_ join her on at least a few of those. Because they were the most fun Anko usually got during the year. Most of the time it was just boring assholes like the one in front of her, who she could already tell would spill his guts on the first cut.

Ah, well. Nothing to be done about it. She'd just ignore his willingness to confess until she was done playing.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Anko shifted her attention to the man before her. "You and I are going to have some _fun_." she whispered, her voice low and sultry. The man's eyes became as large as dinner-plates and he began shaking his head rapidly. "Oh yes, we are. But don't worry, I'll be sure to be _extra_ careful not to hit anything vital. Wouldn't want you to miss all of the excitement, you know." She stepped closer, so that she was less than a foot away from his face.

"Now… let's see how much pain you can handle before you pass out. Your buddies were _such_ disappointments. Finished in less than five minutes. How's a woman supposed to enjoy herself with that?" She reached out and traced the edge of the knife along his cheek, up towards his ear and down his neck, a thin line of blooming red following her path.

"But _you_ wouldn't do that to me, right?"

* * *

Hinata walked slowly, cautiously, into the field that Anko had claimed as 'theirs' with her Byakugan active, looking at all of the spots that the purple-haired woman had previously used as traps, and the ones that she hadn't yet but would match her style

Thankfully, there appeared to be no deathtraps of spring-loaded kunai launchers or the unexpected flashbang tags that had quickly trained her to be able to disable her dōjutsu and close her eyes in less than half a second or risk annoyingly bad blindness for over ten minutes.

Reaching the center, she stood still, her eyes still active, keeping close watch on the immediate surroundings.

A blur appeared at the edge of her vision, dropping down directly in front of her. Hinata immediately slid into a defensive stance, prepared for whatever happened.

"Nice reflexes." Anko commented, nodding in satisfaction at the girl's caution. "No worries though, I'm not going to start off going for your throat today."

Hinata's brow wrinkled in confusion. That's how Anko-sensei had started _every_ session they'd had so far. Why would this day be any different? She didn't seem to be the type to change habits easily.

Anko answered her questioning look. "Today, we've got serious things to talk about." The woman shifted her weight slightly back, and then returned to her previous state.

… Was she _fidgeting_? The blue-haired girl's confusion grew to bewilderment.

Anko cleared her throat. "So. I've been thinking. Um, we've kind of been working together a lot. Like, a _lot_. But you're still on Kurenai's team… so I was wondering… if, you know…" She tugged on the edges of her trench-coat while glancing at the ground.

"Aw, fuck it. I was never good at this kind of polite shit anyways." The woman took a breath and looked up, locking eyes with the girl who stood before her. "How'd you feel about officially becoming my student?"

Hinata was so shocked she unconsciously released her Byakugan. "W-w-what?"

"Yeah. You, me, doing stuff like this all the time, but for real. I never thought I'd ever say this to some rookie genin, but I've had a lot of fun working with you, and I'd like to keep teaching you. I hadn't planned on ever taking a student, hell, I'd said I never would. Guess I'm eating my words now…" Anko laughed nervously. "So, what do you think? I know it's kind of sudden, but I thought I'd at least ask…"

Hinata just stood there for a moment before realizing that Anko was expecting an immediate response.

Her first thoughts went to Team 8. Shino and Kiba and Kurenai-sensei. She loved her team. As weird as it was, she still loved it. She didn't want to give that up, just walking away to go to a new teacher. If she said yes, she'd be leaving them all behind.

But on the other hand, as soon as one of them became chūnin, they would be broken up anyways…

"Oh! And if you're worrying about your old team, I already talked to Nai-chan and she said that she's fine with you transferring, but that she'd still want me to let you do missions with them which I've got no problems with. Really, you'd just be training with me more, and I'd get more time out of the T&I department to do it. Oh, and I'd get to teach you some of my personal techniques." The woman grinned.

… Well, there went her worry about losing the bond she had with Team 8. If Kurenai-sensei had given her blessing of it…

And Hinata got the feeling that this was one of those opportunities that you would regret for the rest of your life if you declined. Training with Anko-sensei, she'd improved more in the past three weeks than she could have imagined possible. Part of that was more than likely due to the snake-summoner's teaching methods, but there was also no denying the results.

This was no small commitment, and Hinata knew that. But at the same time, she'd also enjoyed being taught by Anko, and _would_ like to continue it, something that would eventually become impossible when all of Team 8 was fully gathered again. Did she really want to do this?

… Yes. Her father wouldn't care what she did with her ninja career, as she was already a failure in his eyes. And this offer was one that she would be a fool to pass up, leading to the possibility of much higher jobs, more trusted positions, and the chance of advancing quicker through the ranks to get to where she could help Naruto-kun the most.

The implications of being Anko's full-time apprentice were not lost on Hinata. She knew _exactly_ what the snake summoner's job was: assassination, torture, and interrogation. The 'dark side' of ninja work, as it were. By becoming her student, Hinata would be accepting that path. Naruto strove to be Hokage, the "Fire Shadow". But he wasn't someone who would (or even _could_ ) work from the shadows. She could see that as clearly as day. He was a bright light that caused people to gravitate and orbit him like a star. But everything needed a balance to be strong. A yin to yang. Dark to light.

And that solidified it.

She would be the one to deal with the darkness for him. She would selflessly take on that burden, that task, to spare him from it, to fulfill her wish to support him. Such was her devotion.

"U-um. Thank you. I humbly accept your generous offer." Hinata bowed. "Please take care of me from hereon."

Anko laughed. "Awesome! This is going to be great." she said, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, now we've just got to go talk to the Hokage and fill out all of the paperwork."

And before the Hyūga could make so much as a single protest, the purple haired-woman grabbed Hinata, whisking them away towards the Hokage by shunshin.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki sat under a tree on the edge of Training Ground 3, staring at his right hand. The sharp smell of ozone filled his immediate area, evidence of the small bolts of lightning he was creating in his palm.

Four weeks of practice. Five hundred clones. Sixteen hours a day. Five days a week.

Eighteen years of practical experience molding his chakra and converting it to Lightning Nature. Kakashi had said that in less than a week he would surpass the jōnin in the amount of time he'd been using the nature.

Naruto's Sharingan had only made learning how to use it all the easier. He could literally _see_ where his chakra was converting to the nature. The vibration that was perfect for this size or that amount of current. Forever embedded in his mind, impossible to forget.

Naruto stopped the small arcs and shifted to collecting the Lightning over his hand, compressing it tighter and tighter to form a second skin of purple-blue-white electricity.

A high-pitched squeal cut through the silence, and then shifted to what sounded like birds chirping.

The _Chidori_.

He hadn't even shown Kakashi-sensei that he could do this. Somehow, he had just… _known_ how to.

This was the jutsu, the technique that Sasuke had tried to kill him with. The technique that–

 _ **CHICHICHICHI**_

"RAAAGHHHH!"

He ran across the surface of the River of the End towards the blonde in front of him, his left arm raised. Black lightning escaped between his fingers, screaming in a high-pitched whine/chirping as he increased the cursed chakra's flow towards the jutsu, fully focused on his goal of driving the arm into the heart of his best friend.

Naruto sprinted towards him in reaction, his footsteps creating large splashes in the water. Another of those yellow-orange balls of swirling chakra sat in his hand, created from both the boy's own energy and the bubbling red mass that surrounded him.

If his own curse seal felt like ice and cold darkness, then Naruto's power was like the sun. An angry, malevolent, red sun. The metallic tang of blood and hatred followed the blonde every time they clashed, saturating the air and threatening to overwhelm him.

So far he had only survived by being smart, careful. Drawing out his power when there was no other choice, conserving himself to fight the true monster of chakra in front of him, whose power seemed to have no end.

He gritted his teeth and growled, infuriated.

Why was he pushed like this?

Why was Naruto always stronger?

Why didn't he have this, a power that would let him be that much closer to his goal of killing _him_?

And now here he was, forced to put all of his power and strength into one last attack.

He could hear Itachi's voice in his head. _Pathetic. Is this all you can do? You will never become strong enough to kill me, little brother. Not like this._

"SAASSSUUKEEEEEE!" Naruto bellowed as the two of them closed the gap.

"NARRUUTOOOOO!"

Their hands connected, orange with black, sun with void, light with darkness.

And then the impossible happened.

The whirling sphere in Naruto's hand touched the underside of his wrist. His Sharingan allowed him to see exactly what would happen. But there was no way to stop Naruto's hand as it was propelled around his arm and downward, the rotating nature of the blonde's attack combined with the sudden contact and friction of his own skin throwing the jutsu off-target.

No time to react. No time to move.

The ball of chakra moved in slow motion, following the curving path that his eyes predicted towards his stomach, his core. He didn't even notice that his own hand had become buried in the boy's chest and right lung, because the ball had made contact, and with the contact came

 _ **PAIN**_

Naruto leaned over and threw up, the contents of his stomach forced up his throat as the phantom ghosts of agony burned through his nerve endings. His eyes felt like they were on fire. Sweat dripped off of his face onto blades of grass as he propped himself up with his arms, trying to catch his breath and stop the pulse that pounded in his ears.

This was the second time he'd remembered something that he'd never experienced. And unlike the first, he knew exactly what that memory had been.

His and Sasuke's fight at the Valley of the End.

Except it hadn't been how he remembered it. It hadn't been his own point of view; it had been from Sasuke's. He had seen everything, experienced everything, _felt_ everything from Sasuke's point of view.

His frustration and resolve to kill Naruto. His raw, pure, undiluted loathing and hatred for Itachi. His anger that he had been pushed so far in the fight.

Why was he seeing these things? The only possible explanation was these eyes, but Kakashi-sensei had never said anything about memories when they had talked about the effects that Sasuke's Sharingan would have on Naruto.

He'd been told to expect fatigue. Which hadn't happened.

He'd been told to expect headaches for the first weeks. He hadn't had any.

 _Instead_ , he was remembering events he had never experienced before.

Memories that could have only come from Sasuke.

Why could he remember these things? Why could he make a flawless, seal-less Chidori despite never having practiced it once?

And if it _was_ because of Sasuke's Sharingan, what did it mean?

* * *

Sweat dripped off of her brow as the high mid-day sun beat down on the two combatants. The dirt ground of the Hyūga sparring ground only served to reflect the heat instead of dissipating it, acting like an oven.

Hanabi stared at her sister in barely-concealed amazement and awe. How? _How!?_ A month ago, she had barely been able to stand for five minutes against their Jūken sensei.

And now? Now Hinata had been standing for twenty minutes straight, and showed no signs of backing down despite being on her last legs. Every valid opening that the man had given her, she had taken without any hesitation. In fact, Hanabi would even say that she took advantage of them _aggressively_.

Hinata. _Aggressive._ The two words just didn't seem possible to fit together, unless there was a 'not' preceding it. But no, her nee-san had been unyielding and efficient, in both attack and defense. She was almost… gliding over the ground.

The Jūken was very much an upper-body taijutsu style, focusing on arm speed and quick movement. Stances were only basic, and moving positions was discouraged unless necessary. But Hinata wasn't following that. She was moving at every opportunity, even twisting _between_ the strikes of the man's attacks, using unconventional strikes that moved up or down instead of just the standard outward strikes to attack any limb that got too close to her.

"I think that's enough, Hinata-sama."

The blue-haired girl nodded in response, barely managing to return the man's bow that formally ended the sparring session before walking drunkenly over to the wooden porch where Hanabi sat. She collapsed on the ledge heavily, taking slow deep breaths in her attempt to shake off the faintness of over-exertion as quickly as possible.

Hinata had informed them about her formal apprenticeship to this 'Anko' person earlier last week, and it was the only thing that the Hyūga heiress could think of that had changed. She _had_ noted her sister coming home tired on a few occasions, which also pointed to the likelihood of this being a consequence of her sensei. …But still, to make such progress in only a months time… Hinata-neesan's training must be even more grueling than otou-sama's lessons.

"N-nee-san?" Hinata turned around to face Hanabi, her face flushed red. "H-how…" The younger girl struggled to articulate her confusion and desire to know more.

Hinata smiled enigmatically but gave no answer, her face slowly fading to a more normal color from its previously flushed state. Taking one final deep breath, she stood up and began walking to the main building across the training ground, entering it and disappearing inside.

The sound of a wooden shōji sliding open sounded from behind Hanabi, and she turned around to see who it was, looking up at the face of her father. "O-Otou-sama! Were you watching?" He nodded silently in response. "H-how did she…?"

Hiashi stared blankly at the place where Hinata had been sparring. "Your sister has discovered that the best motivation comes not from outside, but from within." he said cryptically. "The strength of love is not a thing to dismiss out of hand. She is becoming more like your mother every day."

The man turned and walked along the porch to the building on the left, leaving Hanabi still confused and confounded, thoughts of her nee-san and the fight she had just seen running through her mind, leading to another fight that she couldn't forget.

A fight that had been so similar, and yet so different.

* * *

"BEGIN!" the main house member who was presiding over the match stepped back to the sidelines to watch and referee.

Hanabi lowered herself into an aggressive starting stance, Byakugan active and watching as her nee-san imitated her action, but with a much more neutral stance. They stood there for a few moments, the breeze blowing through the sparring ground, dust kicking up and swirling around them.

Well, if Onee-san wasn't going to make the first move, she would.

Darting forward, she closed the gap between them, Hinata responding by shifting her feet into a more defensive position. Hanabi started off with a feint, aiming towards her sister's core with her right hand and then shifting when the blue-haired girl moved to block the first strike. Her palm got about three-quarters of the way towards its target before Hinata's left arm rotated upwards, pushing the extended forearm up and to the side, passing harmlessly over her shoulder. However, she wasn't done, and continued her assault on Hinata, managing to get a few hits in. But her sister wasn't retaliating with any sense of purpose.

Confused, Hanabi quickly drew back towards the center of the area to get her bearings, and the older girl returned to her initial neutral stance.

Both combatants paused for a second before advancing simultaneously at some unspoken signal. This time, Hinata was the first to reach out, an open-palm strike aiming towards Hanabi's side that was easily deflected and retaliated with her own palm towards the now-exposed joint of her sister's left arm. Just before it was about to make contact, Hinata's other hand pushed it off of its path, leaving a gaping hole in Hanabi's left defense.

The younger girl braced herself for the strike, knowing this would be the deciding strike of the match, as Hinata would have access to all of the tenketsu on her arm and side.

But the attacks she expected never came, Hinata instead stepping backwards, allowing Hanabi to regain her previous stance and close the opening

What was she doing? Hinata-neesan would lose her place as the heiress if she lost this match! Why hadn't she taken that opening and attacked?

"Nee-san! What are you doing?" she hissed.

Hinata shook her head with a slight frown on her face.

 _What? Why?_

The girls advanced towards each other for a third time, and this time Hanabi did not hold back, attempting to provoke her sister into a position where she would _need_ to counter-attack. But when that moment came, Hinata hesitated, her palm only inches away from the brown-haired girl's chest.

Hanabi's frustration grew. Her sister wasn't taking this seriously. This match would decide their futures. And if Hinata would hesitate like this when she was clan head, then she would not be a good leader.

And so at that moment, she decided.

 _Forgive me, Onee-sama._

Hanabi pushed the still-hovering hand in front of her to the left with a circular deflection and lashed out with a strike to Hinata's chest that landed with a solid 'thump', lifting the girl off of her feet and making her fall backwards.

"Stop! This match is now over!"

* * *

Afterwards, Hanabi had been escorted inside by her father, only looking back once to see her sister who had been struggling to get up from the dirt on her own, nobody willing to help her as the few spectators from the clan heads whispered in hushed tones, all of them looking at the new 'former' heiress.

And then the door behind Hanabi had slid closed, clicking shut on the scene that she had witnessed.

Hinata had most definitely changed from that day. From that girl she had been.

Hanabi now got the sense that this new person her sister was slowly becoming would not be one to accept her defeat lying in the dirt like that. And it was all because of this new sensei.

The brown-haired girl's curiosity flared.

She wanted to meet this person.

* * *

"Ahh-choo!"

Kurenai looked at the purple-haired tokubetsu-jōnin to the left of her in alarm. "Cold?"

It was answered with a shake of a head and a sniffle. "Someone must have been talking about me." Anko smirked. "I wonder if they're cute." Her friend only rolled her eyes in exasperation. "So when's everybody else supposed to get here?" she asked.

"It shouldn't be too long. And they've still got five minutes." Kurenai answered.

Anko sighed and draped herself across the rectangular table they were seated at in the restaurant they had all chosen this month. Now that Anko had taken Hinata on as an apprentice, she'd been invited to join the other rookie teams' jōnin senseis for their routine dinner. She had been about to tell Kurenai 'no', until she'd seen the glint in those ringed, red eyes. Nai-chan could be really scary when she wanted to be.

So here they were, in a place that was primarily frequented by shinobi, but was still supposed to have decent food.

"Why do we have to eat here? This place doesn't even have dango!" Anko whined.

Kurenai regarded her flatly. "I'm sure you'll survive."

"Yo."

The two women turned towards the voice that had appeared at the end of their booth, Kurenai blinking a few times.

"Hey Hatake." Anko greeted from her place on the table's surface.

The genjutsu mistress squinted at this person with lopsided silver hair and trademark mask/hitai-ate combo. "… Who are you and what have you done with the real Kakashi? Because the man _I_ know wouldn't be on time to his own funeral, much less _early_."

A bead of sweat formed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Was it really that bad?"

"Yes." both women replied together in a monotone.

"Ah! I have been beaten here by my eternal rival! How humiliating! To regain my honor, tomorrow I shall run around the walls two-hundred and fifty times. And if I cannot do that, I shall do it on my hands five-hundred times!" A monstrosity of a man wearing a hideous green jumpsuit walked towards the table, standing next to Kakashi, yet displaying no sense that he had lost any 'honor'.

The silver-haired man turned to him as if he had only just noticed his presence. "Hm? You say something, Gai?"

Gai clenched his fist while rivers of tears ran down his face. "Damn your cool, hip attitude Kakashi!"

"Uh-huh." was the man's only response. He got into the booth across from the two women, Gai eventually calming down and joining him. "So we're waiting on Asuma?"

Kurenai nodded in affirmation.

Only seconds later, the man himself appeared, complete with cigarette stuck between his lips.

"Speak of the devil…" Anko commented, finally sitting up from her position.

"Put that out." Kurenai told him, looking pointedly at the stick of tobacco in his mouth.

Asuma stared back, and the genjutsu mistress' glare intensified at his delaying. He sighed, taking the offending object from his mouth and crushing it into the ashtray at the end of the table that Kurenai had placed there just for his use.

A glint of purple caught his eye and he turned towards it, looking at the face of Konoha's most famous sadist. The Sarutobi quirked an eyebrow. "What's she doing here?"

"Oi!" Anko shouted in offense.

Kurenai placed a calming hand on the torture-specialist's shoulder. "I invited her here, seeing as she's one of us now."

"Oh? Really?" he asked, joining Gai on what had become the guy's side of the table. "And who would be crazy enough to be her student?"

"Hinata." the red-eyed woman replied tersely.

A second eyebrow joined the first. "Hinata? As in Hinata Hyūga? _That_ Hinata? I thought she was on your team."

"She was. She transferred and became Anko's apprentice by choice."

"How youthful! Why, it reminds me of my own cute student and our bond of–"

Kakashi cut him off, saving them all from another of Gai's rants. "How's she doing? I haven't noticed her around Naruto as much as she used to be."

Anko grinned. "That's cause she's usually too dead tired at the end of the day to do anything else."

"… And you _agreed_ to this?" Asuma asked incredulously, still looking at Kurenai.

She bristled at the fact that he was questioning her judgment concerning one of her own students and her friend. "Yes. Anko's my best friend. I know her better than anybody else and trust her just as much. Hinata has already improved more in the past month she's been with Anko than the year and a half she was with me. I'm fairly certain the results speak for themselves."

Asuma backed off at seeing how agitated she was getting.

"What about the Raiton exercises? How far has she gotten?" Kakashi questioned.

"Not too far. Less than a quarter of what you showed us. But for what we're thinking of doing she doesn't need power, just precision. So we're trying to develop something even while she's not quite mastered it yet." Anko told him. "What about blondie?"

"He's already done. Practicing with his clones, in only a month he's gotten almost as good as me with using it. And then I tested him and found out his affinity is Wind." The silver-haired man laughed. "I thought it would be, but I wanted to see how long it would take him to learn an element that wasn't his affinity. I figure I'll be teaching him all the elements anyways. With how he learns, his clones, and the Sharingan, he'll probably be the best ninjutsu user the world has ever seen by the time he's our age." All of the others around the table stared at him. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's able to do recompositions before he's twenty-five."

The purple-haired woman whistled. "That girl sure knows how to pick 'em."

"A Wind affinity? That makes him the only other one in Konoha that I know." Asuma said. "If he has any problems picking it up, I could give him a couple pointers."

Kakashi nodded in recognition of the Sarutobi's offer.

The waiter, a young man, walked up to their table, and the five jōnin gave him their orders for both drinks and food, returning to the conversation once he had left.

"My own precious Lee has been improving as well! He has fully recovered and is working twice as hard as he had been before his injury! His flames of youth are truly unmatched!" Gai's eyes began streaming tears of pride for his charge. After a few moments he recovered himself and cleared his throat. "Of course, my other two students are also progressing quite nicely." he said. "They are all becoming such wonderful shinobi."

The members of the table turned to look at Kurenai.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, we've talked about _our_ kiddies Nai-chan. Tell us what you're doing." Anko told her.

The genjutsu mistress sighed. "Kiba is as headstrong as ever. And Shino… well, he's Shino. Kiba was a little upset about Hinata leaving the team, but once he learned that she was still going to be doing missions with us and how much she's been growing, he quickly changed his mind. Shino just said that as it was the most logical decision, it only made sense." She frowned. "I can't really do much with them besides team activities and missions at this point, because they're from clans that have such extensive _hiden_ , and spend most of their time with their families."

Asuma nodded. "That's where I'm at too. Ever since the kids fought those Sound ninja, the clans have become more intent than ever on teaching their kids clan techniques."

"Tch. Stop your bitching about having too much free time, you two." Anko said from the other end of the table. "Me and Hinata have to deal with balancing our own training, her clan's training, my job with T&I, Kurenai's missions, and we're going to be starting up our own missions soon. I'm lucky if I get a free hour a day now. They're supposed to be re-adjusting my schedule in the next month so that I'm doing more fieldwork, but for now it's a complete pain in the ass."

"Hey, you knew what you were getting into when you took her on." Kurenai countered.

The snake summoner waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. And she's totally worth it too." Anko had never thought she would say that she enjoyed having a student, but Hinata had proven her completely wrong.

Kakashi eye-smiled. "It's so nice to see that even you can grow up, Anko-chan."

"Bite me, Hatake." she said, glaring daggers at him. "And this is coming from the guy who failed the last five teams he was assigned and was chronically late to everything no matter what."

Gai laughed loudly. "Mitarashi-san has caught you, my rival."

The silver-haired jōnin just stared with a half-lidded eye at Anko while she smirked.

"…touché" he conceded.

The food arrived at that point, and their talk slowed down as they ate, drifting towards discussing different training strategies and comparing missions that they'd done recently. Hours later, long after the sun had set, they finally departed, splitting up and going their separate ways.

Anko smiled slightly as she jumped over roofs towards her apartment.

That had been nice. As much as she loved hanging out with Nai-chan, it would probably be good for her to have some more regular contact with the other sensei. Kurenai was really the only person she considered a 'friend', but these dinners gave her the perfect excuse to step out of her comfort zone a little bit and forced her to get to know the others now that she was one of them, with her own genin student.

She still could barely believe that she was actually a teacher of a genin. And a Hyūga, no less.

The world worked in strange ways.

* * *

Naruto arrived early in the morning at what he was coming to think of 'his' training ground, thinking about what he would be doing today, probably looking over the storage seals Kakashi had been showing him. The sun was just barely above the horizon, breaking over the wooden posts–

"Well, there's no need for you guys to go back to the Academy." Kakashi said, looking down at them.

He smirked. Of course he wouldn't be going back to the Academy. He was an Uchiha.

"No, you should just quit trying to be ninja all together."

All of three of them froze.

… _WHAT!?_

"QUIT AS NINJAS? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?" The orange idiot next to him yelled. "Yeah, we couldn't get the bells, but why the hell do we have to quit!?"

No. This could not happen. He **could not** allow this to happen!

How was he supposed to kill Itachi and avenge his clan if he wasn't even a proper ninja?

"Because all of you are just brats who don't deserve to be ninja." Kakashi told them.

He saw red, his breathing and heartbeat speeding up.

No. No NO. _NO!_ _**NO!**_

Before he even realized what he was doing, Sasuke was flying towards the silver-haired jōnin, a kunai pulled out of the holder taped to his leg.

And then he was suddenly on his stomach, arms pulled behind his back as Kakashi sat on him, a foot on his head.

"No! Sasuke-kun!"

He struggled to free himself, trying to get out of the man's grip.

"Are you guys underestimating ninja? Why do you think you were split into teams and are doing this training?" the jōnin asked.

"…" There was no response.

"You guys have completely missed the point of this test."

"And what the hell's the point of this stupid test anyways!?" Naruto demanded.

"… Teamwork."

"B-but, there are only two bells!" Sakura stated. "Even if we all worked together, there would still be one person who got sent back!"

"Exactly. This test was to see if you could get past your own selfish desires and still work together successfully. And you failed." Kakashi said harshly.

Sasuke's arm and shoulder were beginning to burn from the position it was being held in. He had given up struggling, and now just lay where he was, his face in the dirt, the jōnin still positioned on top of him.

"Sakura only thought about Sasuke, even when Naruto was right next to you. Naruto was just running around by himself. And you, Sasuke," Kakashi looked down at him, and he glared back angrily. "You assumed everybody else would just get in your way, and did everything on your own."

Kakashi turned away from him. "Individual abilities and talents are important, but what's even more important is 'teamwork'. If you only think about yourself, you'll only be putting the entire team in danger."

He felt the weight lift off of his back as the man finally got up. But instead of walking towards the two idiots, the jōnin went in the opposite direction, stopping in front of a large rectangular stone.

"Every single name on this stone is the name of a hero."

"Really!? Then I'll get my name on there too!" Naruto shouted.

"…these aren't normal heroes." Kakashi said calmly.

"Yeah? Then what kind are they?"

"…" The man stood there for a moment, just staring at the gray slab. "These are the heroes who've died while serving the village."

They all stilled.

 _Tch. And I bet not a single Uchiha from_ _ **that**_ _day is on there._

"This is a memorial to the fallen. My best friend's name is on here."

Sasuke's mind went blank.

Kakashi looked over his shoulder. "I'll give you guys one last chance. But it'll be a lot harder than last time. Anyone who wants to try can eat their lunch. But don't give Naruto any."

"Huh!?"

"It's punishment for trying to eat by yourself. If either one of you gives him food, I'll fail you immediately. _I_ am the rules here. Understand?" he said sharply.

And then in a blink, he was gone.

Sasuke sat down on the dirt area around the wooden posts and opened one of the bentō, beginning to eat the rice and umeboshi that was inside.

"Ha! The joke's on him! I don't need any food!" Naruto bragged. His stomach grumbled, immediately countering the blonde's words.

… _What an idiot._

"Here." Sasuke held his box out towards the blonde.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura hissed. "Sensei just said–"

"He's not near us." he said, still holding out the box. "We'll work together after lunch to get the bells. If he didn't get any food, just be in the way."

At least if the dobe ate he might have enough energy to act as bait…

Sakura looked at her own bentō box and then whipped around, holding it out towards Naruto.

"WHAT IS THIS!?" A large cloud of smoke exploded outwards in front of them. "YOU GUYS!"

Sasuke raised himself up onto a knee, ready to draw a kunai and fight whatever threat might appear.

"AAHHHH!" Naruto screamed.

"… pass!" Kakashi said, smiling strangely with only his eyelid. "Heh. You guys are the first. All the others were morons, and just did whatever I told them. But a ninja cannot only look at the surface. They must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules of the ninja world are trash. But you know? Those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash."

… _Comrades are just another thing that'll slow me down._

"That ends the training! All of you pass! Starting tomorrow, Team Seven–"

 **SeVEn**

 **sEvEN**

 **SEVen**

 **seVeN**

The word pounded behind Naruto's eyes, and his head felt like it was splitting open. Some kind of liquid dripped down his face, landing on the grass and staining it red.

 **SeVen**

He couldn't think straight. All that he was aware of was the pain. The burning in his eyes.

 **sEVeN**

"–seven. Let's start with introductions." the man in front of them said.

"What kind of introductions?" That girl, Sakura, asked.

"Hm… How about… Your likes, dislikes, and… your dreams for the future. Stuff like that." he answered.

"Hey! You haven't even told us your own name!" The dobe actually a good point for once.

"Yeah… You look kind of suspicious…" Sakura noted.

"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. I don't really want to tell you my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future…" He paused, looking thoughtful, but after a few seconds, moved on. "And I have a lot of hobbies."

"So… all he told us was his name?"

 _This_ was the extent of the deductive power of the Kunoichi of the year? Pathetic.

"Lets start on the right." Kakashi said, pointing to the blonde.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, and I especially like when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen. I dislike waiting the 3 minutes for ramen to cook. And my dream… I'm gonna surpass the Hokage and have the people of this village acknowledge my existence!"

What an idiot. Did he really think he could be any better than the Hokage? He was just the class _dobe_. The Hokage was the strongest man in the village. And Naruto was just some worthless dead-last wannabe.

But _he_ was different. He had a plan. And he _would_ achieve it, if it was the last thing he did.

"… Hobbies? Pranks, I guess." the boy finished.

"… I see. Next."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are lots of things I dislike, and I don't really like anything. I don't really have a dream… it's an ambition. The revival of my clan… and to kill a certain man."

Naruto finally managed to pull himself from the memory, panting, his face embedded in the ground, feeling like it had gotten pounded into it.

These flashbacks were happening more frequently. This was the twelfth time now in a week. And this last one had been triggered just from the previous one. He hadn't said anything to Kakashi because he'd been afraid he wouldn't believe him. But now he had to tell someone, and his sensei was probably the best person.

Naruto tried to open his eyes, but something was keeping them shut, so he weakly reached up and wiped at the left one, feeling something hard and sticky crumbling under the motion. Dried blood.

He attempted to sit up, but found that his muscles had locked up and were barely allowing him to move at all. The pain in his head suddenly increased, going from bearable to excruciating agony. Liquid fire blazed through his veins like acid, and his vision swam with reds. He heard something crying out, and seconds later realized that it was his own voice screaming. Screaming in agony.

There was no sense of time. Only pain.

It could have been seconds, or minutes, or hours. He didn't know. He couldn't tell

But finally, the small eternity of pain was interrupted by a voice that cut through his cries. "Naruto!? Naruto!"

The last thing he saw was a swatch of silver in his blurry red vision as he finally succumbed to the grip of the cold darkness that rose and captured him in its claws, dragging him down into the horrors of his mind.

* * *

 **A/N:**

God, I love Anko. She's so much fun. Easily one of my favorite characters, if you couldn't tell already.

I would like to give a huge thank you to **Ziltoid** for the glowing recommendations for both of my stories, you should totally go read _The Honored Guest_ and _Pareidolia_ if you haven't already. They're fantastically written, and explore alternate events and scenarios in a way that just sucks you in.

Please! Review! Let me know what you thought about this chapter! I read everything and _do_ respond to the more complex comments and questions via PM.

Until next time!

/ensou out


	5. Echoes

It's time for yet another installment of _The World Turns Without You_. The story where Sasuke's dead for good, and shit gets crazy.

Yeah… this chapter should have been posted two months ago, when it was actually done. I was just being very… obsessive about it. I've decided that screw what I think, I just need to post it and move on with the story or we'll never get anywhere.

I also know that the ending of the last chapter was not the best I've ever done. /shrugs. I'll try and figure something out once we're a lot further into the story, but for now I hope I can at least make up for that a little bit here.

Seriously though, thank you. The kind of support you guys are showing means the world to me. Writing is just a hobby for me, cultivated through massive amounts of reading. I've always loved reading, getting lost in the worlds and emotions of the characters. _That's_ why I write and publish these stories, because I want to give some of those feelings and the enjoyment that I've experienced back to people. So, I hope you enjoy the story.

* * *

 **Chapter 5:**  
 **Echoes**

Chakra is an odd thing. It can act as both a solid and a liquid. It can be both pure energy, or solid mass. It can unify, or it can split. It can bring people together, and it can tear them apart.

But perhaps the most interesting property of chakra is the fact that somehow it can be either unorganized, or truly self-aware and sapient. It can contain memories, and even act of its own accord.

The clearest, most evident example of this is the existence of the bijū, beings that have existed for thousands of years, pure chakra, pure _energy_ , yet physical as well, able to interact with the world. It is a contradiction, a dichotomy, a paradox that has given risen to a long-accepted and undeniable truth despite its impossibility:

Chakra is _alive_.

* * *

He was floating.

Floating in inexplicable emptiness, surrounded by darkness on all sides, with no distinction between up or down, left or right.

Dots of light began appearing in the blackness, growing larger. He vaguely recognized that he was moving towards them. Or maybe they were moving towards him. It was the same either way: they were getting closer.

The the pinpoints of light slowly resolved themselves into what appeared to be spheres of light. The majority were yellow, but there were others that were purplish in color. They moved around him, surrounding him, floating freely. As he watched, one of the yellow balls suddenly moved, jerking and hitting a purple one. When it did, the two balls that had touched were no longer yellow and violet, but a strikingly bright reddish orange.

Orange…

For some reason he liked the color orange.

The two newly-changed spheres broke off from the force of the collision, hitting another pair of the luminescent balls, spreading the orange color like an infection. A chain reaction.

Eventually the sea of yellow and purple became an entirely even shade of orange, with no hints of either the previous colors having even existed in the first place. And then all of the balls coalesced, becoming one giant glowing globe that rushed towards and enveloped him, leaving nothing behind.

* * *

"What's wrong with him?" Kakashi asked, looking down at Naruto, who was (once again) in a hospital bed. The kid just couldn't ever seem to catch a break: the Kyūbi, the Wave mission, the Chūnin exams, Orochimaru, Sasuke, and now _this_. Whatever this was.

"Nothing… from my initial scans." Tsunade told him, not looking up from what she was doing: running her hand coated in green chakra over the boy's body, searching for any irregularities in his organs or chakra flow.

"…He was bleeding out of his eyes and screaming his throat raw when I found him. I'm pretty sure that's not 'nothing'." the cyclops commented dryly. Not that he wasn't worried, because he was, there just wasn't anything he could do right now other than what he already had.

It had not been a pretty scene. Naruto had been curled up in a fetal position just in front of the three posts on Training Ground 3, gripping his head and screaming in pain while his eyes streamed blood. It had reminded Kakashi of that Ichibi jinchūriki and how he had acted prior to releasing the bijū. And that… would not have been good for Konoha. Which is why he'd brought the blonde straight to the Hokage's office instead of the hospital, knowing that Tsunade would want to be the one to look at him and that she was one of the few who might be able to handle Naruto if the seal was weakening. _Thankfully_ the boy had passed out just after Kakashi had arrived on the scene, which meant he hadn't been in any immediate pain after that point.

"I know. I'm just telling you what I'm seeing." the Slug Sannin responded. "I'm at a loss as to what's going on. There's nothing physically wrong with him. His vitals are standard. His blood pressure is low. His brain is showing signs of normal REM sleep. His chakra network is perfect–" She stilled for a moment. "Wait. That can't be right."

Kakashi looked up at her. "What?"

Tsunade moved her glowing palm over the boy's closed eyes. "His eyes should be registering as foreign chakra. Transplants always produce chakra signatures that match the donor. But these… they have the same signature as the rest of his body."

"…What does that mean?"

She took her hand off of Naruto. "I-I don't know. I've never seen _anything_ like this happening. If I had to guess, it means that his body is somehow… assimilating the eyes, like some form of endosymbiosis on the scale of whole organs. At least chakra-wise. Whether that assimilation is modifying things all the way down to the cellular or even genetic level is something I'd need to do more tests for."

"Could it be because of the Kyūbi's healing? Or is it because he's an Uzumaki? They were said to have very powerful chakra and vitality…" Kakashi mused, thinking aloud.

"I really don't know." she reiterated, staring at Naruto's face. "It could be either one, or a combination, or even something else that we have no idea of. At this point we just don't have enough to go on. I can run those tests, but I don't have any clue what they're going to show us."

The jōnin nodded in acceptance of her answer as she walked over to a set of cabinets on the other side of the room, picking out a catheter and a set of glass vials along with a paper seal-tag. Returning to the blonde, she drew his blood quickly and then placed the tag on his arm which absorbed a small amount of his chakra for evaluation. Kakashi simply looked on, watching the process.

Tsunade collected the vials and paper, looking down at the boy she had come to think of as her surrogate grandchild. "I'll drop these off at our lab to be processed immediately. It should only take an hour or so. Do you want to stay with him while we're waiting on the results?"

Kakashi nodded without speaking.

"Alright." The older woman walked over to the door, and opened it before turning around. "…Don't beat yourself up Kakashi. This wasn't something any of us could have predicted. It isn't your fault."

The jōnin who was the only remaining member of Team Minato remained staring at Naruto's peaceful expression silently, not even reacting at the sound of the door behind him closing.

 _Come on, Naruto. You can get through this. Don't give up. I can't lose another one._

* * *

Kurama was not a happy fox.

He'd been trying to slow down what had been happening to his container for months now, but it had only delayed things. Although… it _had_ caused the meat-bag no small amount of pain. So there was some good that had come out of it, he supposed.

He'd known as soon his jailer had opened those eyes for the first time and chakra had flowed towards them that something was wrong. It had felt… unnatural. There should have been some kind of minor problems with them, a greater drain on chakra than there had been… or, or _something_ , but there hadn't. And then Kurama had realized it was _his_ presence that was the cause of that. The healing properties of his own chakra had done their job too well, treating the foreign eyes as just parts of the boy's body that belonged where they were.

It had only gotten worse from there. The small portion of his chakra that continuously leaked out of this damned seal combined with the boy's own highly Yang-dominant chakra had corroded the chakra already in the eyes, breaking it down in such a way that the boy's chakra system had _absorbed_ the eyes' original Yin-natured chakra, creating a combination that his body actually adopted and began producing on its own.

The fox was worried. Very worried. He wouldn't admit it, not even to himself, but this was perturbing on a completely different level.

His jailer's chakra shouldn't be that strong. It shouldn't be able to change itself and combine with another source. It shouldn't be able to _adapt_ to that change and continue producing that meld of chakra.

But it had, and Kurama had no idea what it meant.

* * *

Naruto blinked, staring up at a bare white ceiling. A white ceiling with bright florescent lights that was eminently familiar and easily recognizable to the blonde after looking at it for more than a week only months before. The hospital.

What was it this time? What had he been doing?

He'd been in a field… and then there had been pain, a lot of pain… and memories?

Sasuke's memories. Ever since the flashback to the Valley of the End, there had been a persistent dull aching and itching behind his eyes. And then as it had gone on, the flashbacks had increased in frequency, and the pain had slowly grown until it had been a constant headache.

But now it was all gone. He felt good. In fact, he might actually be feeling better than he had before all of this had started. He didn't know that was even possible, since he had felt normal before the flashbacks had started, but now he felt better than normal.

Like… everything had been slightly fuzzy before, for his entire life even, but now the world was in perfect focus.

The sound of shoes clicked down the hall towards his door, and Naruto looked towards it, seeing the outline of a woman with a purplish-pink aura of chakra around her outside his room, a signature he identified that immediately began to calm him, if only slightly.

… Tsunade-baachan.

The door opened, and the Hokage stepped inside the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

"Awake now? You gave Kakashi a real scare. I think he got more than a few grey hairs from that." She walked towards Naruto, a clipboard in her hands. "…Not that you could even tell, the lucky bastard." she mumbled under her breath. Continuing at a normal volume, "I told him to go get lunch and then head home because sitting around waiting wasn't doing anything good for his mental state."

Naruto sobered, reminded of the current events that lead to this situation. "…Baa-chan?" he asked hesitantly "Why… why am I here? Well… I guess, I know why I'm here… But what's going on?"

Tsunade pulled a chair from the side of the room, the metal legs screeching over the linoleum floor until it was next to Naruto's bed, at which point she sat down in it and crossed her legs, leaning back with her arms crossed in front of her chest, the clipboard on her knee. "We don't know. We were hoping you could tell us something. We've got an idea, but we don't know if it's right or not. Is there _anything_ you can tell us?"

Naruto looked down at his hands, and vaguely noted that the flow of chakra around him that had once been bright yellow was now a warm orange. The same color as in that weird dream (vision?) with the balls of light. "I started having dreams. About Sasuke. Except I was him. And then they started happening during the day too. I knew after the second time they were his memories, but I thought they would just go away after awhile. But they didn't, and my eyes started hurting and the memories got worse. And then…" he trailed off. "Well, you know."

She looked at him, waiting to see if there was anything more, but when there wasn't, she sighed. "At least that gives me something to work with. I think I've got an idea what was happening, even if I don't know why." Naruto tilted his head back up so he could see her, even as she looked out the window to the right of his bed. "Somehow, your body has integrated those eyes into your physiology perfectly. It doesn't go down to the genetic level, but they don't register as foreign chakra presences anymore."

"…But, but what about the memories?"

Tsunade frowned. "You'd be better off asking a Yamanaka than me, but I'll try and explain what I know Chakra can contain memory imprints and echoes, especially vivid or memorable ones. If you actually absorbed the chakra that was present in your eyes, Sasuke's chakra, it would make sense that you might see some of his memories. Can you still remember them? Do you have anything in your mind that feels out of place or are from his perspective? We might have to get someone to take a look if you do. They might end up causing brain damage. People aren't designed to have two sets of overlaid brain wave patterns like that."

The boy sat still for a moment, sifting through his mind and trying to find anything that didn't belong. But there was nothing. It was all normal. His mind was silent.

Naruto shook his head. "I can remember remembering them, but I can't remember them. …Um. Does that make sense?"

The woman chuckled at his repetitive response. "It makes sense. And it's what I hoped for. They're called meta-memories. When a mind-walker views a memory, they don't actually take it. They see it, they experience it, but it's not theirs. It seems like that's what happened here."

"But… why'd that happen? Kakashi-sensei didn't have this, did he?"

"No. But then again, when have _you_ ever done things normally?" she teased. Naruto pouted, and Tsunade reached out and ruffled his hair, making him smile slightly. "We were thinking that it might have to do with your tenant and how you can heal, or the fact that you're an Uzumaki, who were said to have very powerful, strong chakra and life-forces. Or maybe it's both… or something else. But we don't really know. It looks like you still can't disable the dōjutsu, can you?"

Naruto tried halting the flow of chakra that was pulled to his eyes completely, but nothing happened and all of the chakra auras he could see were still there, so he shook his head in denial.

"Hm. Then it's probably because of the genetic difference that you can't disable them, not because of the chakra signature mismatch between the organs and your own body. I was always curious why that was. Never thought I'd actually find out…"

The door to the room clicked open, and both occupants turned towards the sound.

"U-um, Naruto-kun?" A head with blue hair and pale lavender eyes appeared in the gap. "Oh! Hokage-sama. Please excuse me. I'll come back later…"

"No, we were just finishing up. You can come in." Tsunade told her with a knowing smile.

Hinata stepped inside, followed closely behind by Anko, who shut the door behind both of them, muffling the busy sounds of the hospital.

"Hey, brat." Anko greeted. "Girl heard you were here and wanted to see how you were doing. I couldn't stop her even if I wanted to, so I figured I'd come along for the hell of it. You feeling okay?" Naruto nodded. "What happened?"

Hinata had made her way over to Naruto, and was fidgeting as if she didn't know what to do. The tokubetsu jōnin pulled a chair over next to Tsunade's, positioning the Hyūga in front of it and then pushing her down to sit in the chair so that she would stop hovering. Anko herself leaned against the wall next to Naruto's bed, looking down at him and waiting for a response.

"… you can tell them." he said quietly, looking at Tsunade.

The Hokage nodded, and answered the question. "His body somehow… adapted to and absorbed the foreign chakra that was in his eyes. He had some flashbacks from the process, echoes of strong memories that had gotten embedded in the chakra."

Anko grimaced. "That couldn't have been fun." More like it would have fucking sucked. There was a reason Yamanaka were the only ones who were authorized to do mind-walks. They had to go through years of emotional conditioning and desensitization training to be able to handle the possible trauma of experiencing another person's memories and emotions. Developing things like split-personalities and sympathetic feelings were not good when you were interrogating mass-murderers and nukenin. "What kinda stuff did you see, kid?"

"…" Naruto turned at looked up at her. "There were a bunch… Sasuke's mom and dad. Itachi. A guy name Shisui. Training with Itachi. The Uchiha massacre." Everybody's faces blanched. "The academy exam. Our team's first meeting. The bell test. Fighting Zabuza, and then Haku. Orochimaru in the Chūnin exams. Training with the Chidori. Fighting Gaara in the finals. Meeting those Sound ninja." He paused, and looked down at the bed. "… and our fight in the Valley."

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered, her voice heavy with concern and sympathy.

The boy turned to her, his eyes wet. "I'm okay Hinata-chan. It's just… a little hard, ya know? 'Cause now I know how he felt and how much he was hurting. And, and I wish I could tell him that it would be okay and that I understand now… but he's gone, and now I'll never get the chance to tell him." He took a breath. "I'm okay with that. He'd probably fight me if he saw me being broody so that I'd forget it all. So I've gotta try not to be, yeah?"

Anko sighed from her place against her wall. "Hey, Tsunade-sama. Can he go? Or does he have to stick around here?"

The Sannin looked at her, something unspoken passing between the two of them. "No, he's free to go. There's nothing physically wrong with him. And there shouldn't be any more episodic flashbacks now that Sasuke's chakra has completely disappeared. So he should be fine."

The purple-haired woman nodded. "Alright then, kiddies. How about we go get lunch? Anywhere you want. It'll be on me." Dango always helped her deal with the worst shit. Well, dango and alcohol. But she didn't think Kurenai or Kakashi would appreciate her taking them out to a bar and getting drunk when it was barely past noon. So food it was.

Naruto grinned automatically as his thoughts went straight to a certain favorite noodle shop. "I know just the place!"

* * *

"You could have eaten _less_ you know…" Anko grumbled as they walked away from the ramen stand. Seven bowls. Who the hell ate seven fucking bowls of ramen? She hadn't known it was even possible for a thirteen year-old's stomach to hold that much liquid. At least that guy had given her a discount. Otherwise she probably would have been completely cleaned out. Both she and Hinata had only eaten a single bowl each, which was still more than enough.

Hinata giggled from her right.

Well, at least Anko had achieved what she wanted. By the time they were done eating, the boy had been grinning like a loon.

"So what're we doing now, crazy snake lady?" Naruto asked from her other side.

She stopped walking and looked at him, squinting. "I have a name, you know. Anko. A-n-ko. Not 'crazy snake lady'."

The blonde nodded. "Okay. So then what're we doing now, Anko-chan?"

"Not _-chan_. Just Anko, brat." she growled. Nobody except Kurenai could get away with something like that. She started moving forward again down the dirt road, the two teens hurrying to catch up. "I don't know. I was teaching Hinata before we went and saw you, but I don't think we've got enough time to finish up now."

"…Oh. Sorry." Naruto said quietly.

The younger girl shook her head. "I… wanted to see if you were okay." She blushed slightly.

"…thanks." Feeling slightly awkward at the silence that descended over them, he tried to think of something. "Whatcha learning?" he asked.

"We're upgrading her taijutsu. So far I haven't had Hiashi-teme after my neck for screwing with his precious _Jūken_ , so I figure I'm safe. For now." Anko smirked. It wasn't often you could say you were destroying generations-old traditions, especially with the daughter of the head of the clan as the test subject.

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Those white-eyes can be really scary sometimes. Oh, um, no offense, Hinata-chan."

The Hyūga smiled slightly. "It's okay." Her family _could_ be really scary. Especially Otou-sama.

"How about you, gaki? Hatake said you were done with your Lightning nature, so what're you up to now?"

"Oh! I'm doing Wind now. It's a lot easier. And Kakashi-sensei's been fixing my taijutsu too. He said it was really bad and had a lot of holes. Like that weird cheese. And I'm still learning that sealing stuff. I've got, um…" He screwed his face up. "Four hundred clones doing each thing?" Naruto nodded. "Yeah. He's making me wear these weight thingies too. See?" He pulled up the sleeve on his jumpsuit, and showed them a seal design on his wrist. "They're supposed to be like bushy-brow's weights. He increases the weight by a pound every week. I've got three pounds right now, but it feels like I'm walking through water."

Anko eyed the fūinjutsu thoughtfully. "Hm. That's… not a bad idea. I might have to talk to Kakashi about something like that for girl here." The purple-haired woman adopted a slightly bloodthirsty smile. "She's been getting too good at our little evasion exercises lately. What do you think, Hina-chan?"

The Hyūga nodded sharply, suddenly very serious, a hint of steel creeping into her eyes. "It would be very effective in improving my speed and strength. I think that it would be a good idea." She needed to push herself more if she wanted to get better, to become the best she could be.

"Great, I'll try and figure something out for ya." A hawk screeched overhead, and Anko looked up. "Awh, shit. I gotta go, guys. Something's up with T&I." She stood there momentarily, and then turned to the ex-heiress on her right. "Hinata!"

The girl snapped to attention, back straightening automatically at her teacher's tone. "Hai!"

"Homework!" Anko grinned. "I want you to research nerve clusters and other major and minor pressure points. I know your Byakugan lets you see tenketsu, but for that other thing we're working on, nerves might be faster than relying on chakra pressure to damage internal organs."

"Hai, Anko-sensei."

The woman nodded. "Good. Alright brats, catch you later." She hopped off in a purple blur, leaving Naruto to stare at the place where she had disappeared from.

"Ne, Hinata-chan. Your sensei's really weird, ya know?"

The blue-haired Hyūga only giggled in response.

* * *

Naruto sat under the shade of his tree on the edge of Training Ground 3. Unlike usual, however, the field was empty of the plethora of clones that normally surrounded him in various activities, leaving the blonde on his own.

He stared at the fūinjutsu book in his lap, trying to absorb the words and understand what they were saying. He was getting better about reading it and grasping what it was trying to explain, but he still preferred having a physical example that he could mess around with.

"Hey, Naruto."

The boy looked up at the towering silver-haired man next to him. "Hey, sensei."

Kakashi sat down next to the boy. "So I heard about everything from the Hokage…" Naruto grimaced. "Things… _experiences_ like that can really mess you up if you don't deal with it. She said you saw the Massacre?"

"…yeah." Naruto got a glazed look in his eyes. "Everything was so red… it smelled like rust. And then I saw Kaa-sa–" His red eyes fell. "Mikoto-san and Fugaku-san with Itachi behind them. I… Sasuke was so scared. I didn't see anything else." Kakashi sighed in relief that the Uzumaki hadn't experienced the torture and trauma that had caused Sasuke to become so obsessed with revenge. "I… I don't understand why. Why did he do it? The other times I saw Itachi-ni– Itachi-san he was nice and normal."

"Sometimes… sometimes people just snap. Itachi was a prodigy, and he had a lot of pressure on him to live up to that. He was always a bit distant and quiet. Maybe that was the first clue…" the jōnin said, voicing his thoughts. "Sasuke just couldn't move past losing his family. I thought he was starting to… but then…"

But then the chūnin exams happened. And Orochimaru. And the jūinjutsu. And those Sound ninja. And the Valley. One thing after another, compounding in layers on top of each other until it got to be too much.

Naruto clenched his fists, hot tears threatening to spill out and run down his face.

He had failed Sasuke. Failed him in the worst way possible. Failed to show him that he had people who cared, who would have even _helped_ him if he had just asked for it. They had been a team with bonds forged and tempered in ways only they would be able to share. And instead of treasuring that, Sasuke had felt the need to sever them, because he thought they were tying him down instead of strengthening him like Naruto knew they had actually been.

He had failed to protect his best friend from his worst enemy. Not Itachi. _Himself_.

He would never, _never_ allow himself to make that same mistake again. _Never_ hesitate to protect the people he cared about, the ones he loved. No matter what it took. No matter how hard impossible the odds seemed.

Naruto vaguely noted that it wasn't the healthiest mindset to have, being willing to sacrifice everything in order to save other people, but it was how he felt and what he would do, and damn the consequences.

Kakashi sighed, watching the emotions play across his student's face. "But it doesn't do any good to live in the past." He winced to himself, full aware of the level of hypocrisy in the advice he was giving. "We just keep moving forward, right?"

Naruto looked up and nodded. "Yeah." he agreed, sullenly.

"Well, then. Come on, I know the perfect way to do that." Kakashi grinned behind his mask. "It's _guaranteed_ to make you forget about all that depressing stuff."

"…What's that?"

"More training!" Kakashi gave one of his famous eye-smiles, knowing the reaction it would get.

And sure enough, Naruto simply groaned loudly, slumping backwards in defeat.

* * *

"Alright girl. I think it's been long enough now."

Anko looked at Hinata, who stood in front of the woman in a defensive stance, palms facing forward as she refused to relax.

"I've kinda been putting this off, but there really isn't much reason anymore…"

The woman ran through a series of handsigns before slamming her hand down on the ground. " **Kuchiyose no Jutsu** "

A large puff of white smoke filled the clearing, and Hinata coughed at the sudden invasion to her lungs.

"Anko… I sssensse no enemiesss. Why have you sssumoned me?" A loud voice hissed.

The smoke cleared, revealing Anko standing on the head of a large, dark red snake that was coiled like a rope. The creature had to be at least twenty feet in diameter, with no indication as to its length. "Hey, Saya. No enemies today, we've got something special to do."

The snakes eyes rotated upwards towards where Anko stood, trying to see her but failing. "Oh? Pleassse, pray tell what thisss may be."

"This here's Hinata-chan." The purple-haired woman said, hopping down from the snake's head and walking over to her student. "She's my apprentice. And today she's going to be signing the contract." Hinata turned and looked at the woman in surprise, dropping her Jūken stance.

The summon's tongue flicked out, as if tasting the air around the young Hyūga to sense her worth."I sssee. And I sssuposse you wish me to return with the contract for her to sssign."

Anko grinned "Yup!"

The large snake let out a hissing sigh. "It hasss been monthsss since you last summoned me. And _thisss_ is the task you have?"

Anko laughed. "Oh, suck it up, Saya. I'll make sure to summon you the next time I've got some tasty ninja for you to eat."

The large red snake perked up. "I suppossse that will suffice." It nodded. "I will go to fetch the contract. Sssummon me back in five minutes."

"Will do!" Anko said, grinning.

The snake disappeared in another (albeit smaller) cloud of smoke.

"Shishō?" Hinata asked, turning to the other woman. "What…?"

"I said it didn't I? You're my apprentice! This… um… this is actually kinda why I wanted you to be my student in the first place, truthfully. I don't like the thought of the bastard being the one who keeps the contract." Anko told her, ending in a tone of annoyance and anger. "You're not like… squeamish about snakes or anything, right?" She squinted her eyes at the blue-haired girl.

Hinata shook her head in vehement denial. "No! No. I'm just… surprised."

Summoning contracts were relatively rare, usually limited to either very important clans or passed between master/student pairs. Hinata supposed the Hyūga fell in the former, but the family had never tried to acquire a contract, instead believing themselves above needing to rely on summons to assist them. It was a stereotypical attitude that Hinata had come to recognize, only more so since she had begun her work on integrating her Lightning-natured chakra into her taijutsu style. More than a few of the Main branch elders had expressed their… _extreme_ displeasure with her adoption and integrating of both a chakra nature and a different taijutsu style into the Jūken.

Hinata had reacted to it in the beginning, but then Anko-sensei had snapped her out of it again with a rather blunt "Would you rather listen to those old bastards or be yourself and get stronger?". That had galvanized Hinata's resolve, and the next time there had been a comment, she had merely given a sickly-sweet smile and told the annoying man that as she was no longer the heiress, and thus her actions no longer represented the clan as a whole, she felt no need to bow to the desires of a family that had no sway on her future. Anko had laughed for minutes after Hinata had related the event to her.

"Well, there's nothing to worry about. The snakes are a bunch of pansies. …Just don't go letting them know I said that, okay?" Anko told her.

Hinata nodded.

"Alrighty. Let's get this done then." Anko bit her finger and ran through the sequence of seals again to generate the summoning formula.

The red snake, Saya, returned. A large scroll sat wrapped in her tongue, which she placed on the ground in front of Anko and Hinata.

"I will be curiousss to see the result of thisss. It has been ssso long since we have had a summoner of the old blood." The snake stated, watching the pair curiously.

"Old blood?" asked Anko, an amount of confusion present in her voice.

Saya dipped her head. "Thossse descended from the first sssage and his brother. Your eyesss are his legacy."

"Huh." the purple-haired woman responded dumbly. She shook her head. "Well, whatever. As long as you guys accept her."

"My brother Manda is an idiot." The snake stated, spitting the name like a curse. "I care not what he thinks. Ssshe is worthy, whether he thinksss so or not. I cannot wait for the day he isss weakened. It will be his last, and he will taste death by my fangs. He taintsss our name. We were once a noble clan, and now our name has been dragged through the mud because of hisss obsession with your old massster."

Anko nodded, refusing to acknowledge the mention of Orochimaru and let it ruin her mood, instead bending down and unrolling the giant scroll on the grass. "Alright 'Nata, just write your name here in blood and then leave a handprint."

Hinata shallowly sliced her left palm on a kunai that Anko handed her. She dipped her pointer finger in the blood and then signed her name on the scroll, squeezing her hands together to spread the liquid and then finishing with the crimson image of her right hand at the end. Hinata cleaned her hand off using some water from a bottle and then covered the cut with a bit of salve that she carried around perpetually.

"It isss done." Sayuya hissed, sounding satisfied and examining the scroll at their feet.

"Okay. The handseals are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and then Ram." Anko told Hinata, placing her hands in the shapes as she ran through them. "You need to use a relatively flat surface to let the fūinjutsu expand. Try it out."

Hinata went through the seals, placing her hand on the ground and providing as much chakra as she could. A much smaller puff of smoke than Anko's surrounded them.

"Ah! I was summoned!" A rather high-pitched voice broke out of the ensuing whiteness. "How fun!" A small pitch-black snake sat in the grass staring up at the two kunoichi. "Hullo! I'm Kuro!"

Anko snickered. "Kind of predictable to name a black snake 'black', isn't it?"

The snake in question gave the impression of pouting and annoyed indignation. "Everybody always says that! Meanie!"

Saya sighed in the background. "Must you alwaysss be ssso dramatic, young one?"

Kuro's tongue flicked out, as though blowing a raspberry at the much older summons.

Hinata giggled and crouched down to look the snake in the eye. "I think it's a lovely name."

"Oh! Summoner-san! Am I your first?" The purple haired woman to Hinata's left snickered again at the possible innuendo, which Hinata dutifully ignored.

She nodded in affirmation to the jet snake, which she assumed was female based on the voice.

"That means I'm your personal summon! We're gonna be great friends! I can tell already!" Kuro chirped. "Oh! Please take care of me!" The snake made a nodding motion with her head, imitating an introductory bow.

The white-eyed girl laughed softly. Kuro reminded her of Naruto. It was rather cute. She didn't think she could have gotten along with a snake with a surly and irritable disposition like it seemed Saya had. "My name is Hinata Hyūga. I'm Anko-sensei's apprentice. Please take care of me as well." she told Kuro, bowing slightly in return.

The snake nodded happily. "Hi Hinata-sama!"

Hinata smiled and held out her hand to the summons, allowing it to slither onto her palm, winding up her right forearm before wrapping itself around her neck, the lower half still twined around her upper arm.

"This is going to be so fun!" Kuro's tongue lashed out as she spoke, tickling the blue-haired girl's ear and making her laugh again as she stood up.

"You ssshall be good for our clan… I can already feel it. They will fear you and your name, and our clan will regain our honor." Saya's tongue flicked out. "Yessss, you will be excccellent." The large vermilion snake turned to Anko. "If that isss all, I shall be going."

Anko waved her hand "Yeah, yeah. You can go. Ninja next time. I'll remember."

Saya nodded. "Good." And then the large snake disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Damn. You must be _really_ interesting, girl, because I've _never_ seen Saya act like that." The purple-haired woman commented, turning to Hinata.

"Ah! Hinata-sama! Would you like to be Marked?" Kuro asked, still coiled around the Hyūga's upper body. Anko's eyes went wide.

"A Mark!? She _just_ signed the contract!"

The black snake nodded happily. "I want to give you one! And it's my choice, 'cuz you summoned me first so we've got a reallllly special bond now!" she chirped.

Anko bit her thumbnail in frustration. "Tch. Figures it's Saya's fault. She's never offered that to me once."

"Saya-chan's a meanie! And Hinata-sama is mine! So it's up to me." Kuro huffed.

Hinata looked between the two. "What is a Mark?" She could practically hear the capital letters in the name.

The tokubetsu jōnin looked at her. "It's a permanent fūinjutsu placed on you that means you don't need to go through the handseals in order to summon. And on a per-summon basis, they can choose that you don't need to give the blood offering, meaning you just need to push chakra into the seal to perform the technique. It's _extremely_ special. And useful as hell. Only Orochimaru's got one right now." Anko explained, managing to sound slightly jealous and angry at the same time.

"Yup! So how about it? Pleeeaaaaase? Please please please?" the snake begged.

Hinata giggled. "Okay."

"Yay! Right wrist please! I've gotta bite it!"

Anko squinted at Kuro. "You aren't venomous, are you?"

The black serpent somehow pouted and managed to look affronted with just her eyes. "Of course I am! But I won't give any to Hinata-sama. Although Mama said it would be good to make an… immuninity?"

"Immunity." the older woman corrected.

"Yeah! That thing!"

Anko hm-ed. "She's already got a little from the snake bites in our training, but I'm guessing you've got something special, huh? Most of the named summons do." Kuro nodded from her place on Hinata's shoulder. "We'll start out in small dosages then. Wouldn't want to kill my only apprentice, yeah?" she asked rhetorically, ruffling Hinata's hair. "Anyways, let's got on with this, we've got a lot of stuff to do today."

Kuro nodded, and Hinata held out her right wrist towards her. The black snake suddenly lashed out, latching onto Hinata's arm with her mouth and fangs. Hinata drew a clenched breath, but it didn't hurt _too_ much. A fūinjutsu design spread out from the bite, wrapping around her forearm, above the weight seal that Anko had inked on her wrist.

It burned bright red for a moment, and Hinata hissed as the pain increased a hundred-fold. It felt like the thing wasn't just burning into her arm, but into her very soul. Kuro released her arm, drawing back to Hinata's neck where she sat comfortably.

Anko shuddered. "God that's fuckin' creepy. Reminds me too much of the bastard's curse seal." Kuro hissed, and Hinata got the distinct impression that she was effectively sticking her tongue at the purple-haired tokubetsu jōnin. "Well, whatever. Let's get back to your taijutsu for now."

Hinata nodded in agreement, trying to ignore the dull ache that pervaded her forearm.

"I think we're getting pretty close to a good meld and balance of the two styles, we just need to work on the more advanced forms, 'kay?" The Hyūga girl took up one of the starting stances of one of the more advanced forms of the Jūken. Anko circled her, looking at the form.

"Alright, start the kata, and I'll take a look as you go."

* * *

" **This was not part of the plan.** "

"Hey, don't look at me! It's not my fault the emo kid bit the dust!"

"… **And yet now, the Nine-tails host has the Sharingan with the potential to awaken it further due to his bloodline.** "

"Yeah. Kinda puts a real damper on everything, huh?"

"…"

"What? I'm just sayin'."

" **I know the situation.** "

"But, it _did_ take Madara over a decade to get his eyes…"

" **True. We have some time before the transformation is possible. But we can't rely on the results of a single success to tell us what it will be like if it happens again.** "

"So… what're we gonna do?"

"… **the timetable must be accelerated. We cannot kill the boy because of our need for the Kyūbi. Yet we cannot allow him to live and potentially develop the Rinnegan. We need to seal the bijū into the host as soon as possible in order to deal with the threat he poses.** "

"* _sigh_ * I knew you were going to say that. Why do I feel like this is going to be so much more work for us? Oh, I know… Because it _will_ be."

* * *

 **A/N:**

So! We've got some Naruto, some Kakashi, some Tsunade, bunches of Anko and Hinata, and a new personal summons for Hinata. Plus a mysterious (…not) discussion at the end. Fun stuff.

I want people to tell me what they want to see in this story. Nothing is set in stone, except for some characters and developments, and eventual progression of Naruto and Hinata's relationship. Everything else is flexible. So what would you like? If you haven't noticed, every chapter I try to get some scene with a character or two we don't interact with normally. Would you like me to expand on that? Explore more of the outside characters like Orochimaru, Pain, and Konan? (I love Konan, so she'll probably be popping up at some point). Do you have suggestions for places to visit during the training trip or after? I'd like to see some of Water/Mist at some point, and maybe even Iwa. So please! Let me know.

I've gotten a couple comments on the fact that I don't focus on Naruto a ton. That's… actually kinda the point. The title **is** _The_ _ **World**_ _Turns Without You_ (the "you" in this case obviously being Sasuke). I wanted to explore the repercussions of Sasuke's death on a global scale, and from multiple perspectives. Every one of my stories has some kind of "novelty" that makes it more unique and interesting to me as a reader, and I guess the scope and cast are this story's novelty.

In case you didn't know, my profile is updated pretty often with wordcount and chapter progress. So if you're ever curious why I'm taking so long, or where I am, you can check there. If I don't update _that_ for three or more days, you can assume that school or life has gotten in the way somehow.

Review please! Tell me what you think! It helps enormously.

Cheers!


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